


Last

by softraincloud



Category: EXO (Band), SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Demons, Demon Lee Taemin, Demon Summoning, Fights, Incubus Kim Jongin | Kai, Light Angst, M/M, Rough Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:42:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27631555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softraincloud/pseuds/softraincloud
Summary: With the void of immortality to fill, demons have to entertain themselves somehow, and Taemin has found the perfect way to do just that.However, even within eternity, not everything lasts forever.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Lee Taemin
Comments: 27
Kudos: 70





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> I've always thought Taemin and Kai pull of dark concepts incredibly well, and I wanted to write something that plays off the dark/sensual aspect of their stage personas. So…demons. ^^
> 
> There were a lot of things I needed feedback on with this, so HUGE thanks to Sofaiya ([tumblr](https://pinkbegonias.tumblr.com/)|[AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sofaiya)), [WaterMonkey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/watermonkey), and [oofsehun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oofsehun) for your input, it was very helpful and much needed! And your-hannahbanana ([tumblr](https://your-hannahbanana.tumblr.com/)|[AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionara)), thank you so much for being so incredibly patient with me and helping me with everything, I appreciate it more than I can say!  
> <3
> 
> DISCLAIMERS: This isn't super graphic, but there are physical fights in there, so it's tagged for violence. There is not always verbal confirmation or discussion of consent.

_Taemin, we call upon you by the flesh and the blood of our offering. Kim Jongdae calls you; Byun Baekhyun calls you; Park Chanyeol calls you; Kim Junmyeon calls you. We bare to you our souls as we lay down our oath; let the song of my voice be your guide, the dance of the flames be your beacon. We hereby bid you enter this world._

Taemin let out an airy breath, felt it leave his newly materialized lungs. The Call had been quite strong — either the ones who had summoned him were in deep trouble, or they were powerful magicians. It had been a while since the latter had happened. Perhaps he'd be faced with a group of old sages who would greet him deferentially and make a proper and dignified request. He opened his eyes expectantly.

One glance at the group in front of him was enough to immediately dispel any hopes. They weren't old, and they certainly weren't sages. They looked like bumbling idiots. It was hard to suppress a disappointed sigh at the messily drawn chalk circle they were standing in, so oval it barely qualified as one, or at how they'd left their Book of Spells lying on the floor. Open, no less. Taemin looked down at his own wobbly circle on the floorboards beneath his feet and found that, while his summoners hadn't done a much better job at drawing his sigil, they had at least arranged the eight candles around it properly, and the blood offering and animal sacrifice had been made too.

As usual, he raised his hand toward the dead snake which lay before him. The white smoke swirling around him engulfed the carcass until, with a hiss, the snake shot out and slithered across the floor, very much alive. The quartet of humans shrieked in unison, and Taemin wouldn't have been surprised if they had stepped out of the circle. However, they stayed in place, huddled together, watching with wide eyes as the snake made its way to the door and slinked under it.

When Taemin let the flames of the candles flare hot blue with a sizzle, the group seemed to remember there was a demon in the room and promptly spun back around to him. He moved his still raised hand to point at the not-quite circle they were standing in.

“What's that, an egg?”

They shrank back. “Uh— it's a magic circle,” said one of the three shorter ones. Two of them exchanged panicked glances, no doubt wondering whether a magic egg could grant them the same protection as a magic circle. Taemin rolled his eyes and decided to let it go. He was here now, there was no point in prolonging the procedure.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“W-want… oh, yes!” One of the humans straightened and cleared his throat in a valiant attempt to appear authoritative. Taemin eyed him with mild curiosity. The man's silken robes and headband were rather extravagant, a stark contrast to the coarse fabric of the more practically oriented clothes the others were wearing. He wondered if the eighteenth century had ended yet; from the men's apparel and the familiar design of the room, he guessed not too much time had passed since his last visit to the human world.

“We need you to get rid of an entity,” the man said. He sounded like he was used to ordering people around.

Taemin hummed softly. “An entity, is it? Did you mess up a summoning?”

“ _I_ didn't mess up anything.” The man gave the rest of the group a withering look. They lowered their eyes and mumbled sheepish apologies.

“We didn't mean for it to turn out like that, Junmyeon,” said the man who had screamed the loudest and highest-pitched before. “We just wanted our friend to have a good time—“

“And you thought _that_ would give me a good time?”

“It sounded fun in theory.”

“You're lucky I haven't evicted or sacked you yet, I can tell you that!”

“You're going to be thirty soon,” said the tall one, “and you're still not married! We wanted you to have some fun while you're in your prime.”

“It was the most idiotic thing you three have come up with, and that's saying something.”

Taemin stopped listening to their bickering. He had looked behind him, to a point they kept gesturing to, and spotted something that arrested his attention. In the corner of the room were remnants of an equally sloppy summoning ritual. The lines of the sigil were smudged but mostly visible, the three chalices around it blackened by fire. He sighed once more; this time, a rush of anticipation made his breath quiver. It had been a while.

“So,” he said, and the group fell silent within an instant and stared at him. “Release me so I can take care of your problem, then. I can't do much while I'm stuck here.”

Junmyeon didn't seem to know what Taemin was talking about, but the other three exchanged nervous glances.

“Right,” the tall one said. He nudged the one with the loud voice. “Jongdae, go.”

“Me?” Jongdae looked at the tall one, then at the other two, betrayal written all over his face. “Why me?”

The tall one shrugged. “Baekhyun did it last time, and we know how that turned out.”

“And whatever this is about, Chanyeol is _not_ going to do it,” Junmyeon chimed in. “I trust you to handle things, Jongdae.”

Jongdae made a face, but he bowed his head and stepped to the edge of the circle, where he paused for a moment. His Adam's apple bobbed.

“Taemin,” he then said. “We release you if you pledge to… to chase away the entity that is causing us trouble.”

“I pledge.” Taemin stepped forward and off the sigil. The white smoke which had surrounded him wafted after him briefly, then dissipated at last. His wings, bared by his backless robe, tingled as the binding magic fell off him. He didn't think it was necessary to spread them for effect, as he sometimes did — those humans were intimidated enough.

As if to prove him right, a shiver went through the group and they huddled closer together. They weren't wrong to be afraid, considering how vague their request was, but Taemin hardly ever went to the trouble of twisting his summoners' words. It usually only made things complicated.

He left the room without another look at them and began wandering around the house. It was small and shabby, so there was not much space to cover. He could have everything explored within a minute, but he didn't bother with speed. It wouldn't matter where he went.

Taemin was examining what looked like the dining room when he felt a presence, distant but clearly there, and the next moment it was right behind him, hot, suffocating, all-consuming. He dove forward without a second thought. Something sharp grazed his right wing, but it barely stung, so it couldn't have cut very deep. He leaped sideways and spread a wing, using the momentum it gave him to halt abruptly and spin around.

There he was. Tall and graceful as ever, leaning back against the wall and bathed in pale moonlight, a wild grin on his face. Kai never seemed to change, and yet every time seeing him felt like it was the first.

“Gotten slower?”

He raised a hand; his claws were retracted, but the blood dripping down his fingers betrayed their hidden danger.

Taemin huffed. “You've gotten luckier, that's all.”

“Luckier, huh?” Kai brought the hand up to his face. His tongue darted out and slid over his fingers. Taemin supposed it was the power of an incubus that something like that sent a spike of arousal to his groin.

“And you still haven't managed to give that poor human a good time?”

Kai's grin made his bright eyes sparkle. There was a crazed edge to it, enhanced by the smear of blood on his lips. “Can you believe that's literally what they asked for? _Give Junmyeon a good time_.”

Taemin sighed. “I can believe that, actually,” he said, thinking back to the egg-circle. “I just don't get why you'd take advantage of it. Why would you want to be around humans like that any longer than necessary?”

Kai licked the blood off his lips and shrugged. “It's fun. Anyway, are we here to talk?”

“I suppose not.” Taemin's gaze flitted over Kai's body. There were clothes on him, but they were thin and tight, leaving little to the imagination. Not that Taemin needed his imagination to fill in the blanks; he let his memory take care of that.

The air around Kai flickered, and within a split second he was gone, a faint cloud of black smoke dissipating where he had been. Taemin whirled around and ducked out of the way, easily dodging the blow aimed at him. He scoffed. “You're so predictable.”

Kai cackled, loud and frenzied. “What can I say?” Another flicker of the air and he was right in front of Taemin, heat rolling off his body in waves. Taemin jabbed the sharp ends of his wings at him, but they only cut through black smoke. Kai's chest pressed against Taemin's back, and he breathed hotly into Taemin's ear, “I like doing it from behind.”

Taemin rammed his elbow backward. Again, he hit empty air, and the stifling closeness of Kai's body was gone as suddenly as it had appeared. Taemin was buzzing, trembling with energy down to the tips of his wings.

The next time Kai came into sight, Taemin was fast enough. He landed a punch right to Kai's stomach and made use of his surprised stumble to slice a wing across his chest. The cut was superficial, but it would affect him all the same. There was a flicker in the air, weaker and longer than before, and he disappeared.

Then Taemin was knocked to the ground, buried under Kai's full weight. Claws dug into Taemin's arms as Kai tried to wrestle them behind his back. With a twist of his body and a stroke of his wings, Taemin managed to dislodge Kai's grip and throw Kai off of him. Taemin pounced, the pointed end of his wing stabbing down into Kai's shoulder, pinning him face-down to the floor, and he sank his teeth into Kai's neck. Kai howled and thrashed, but he quickly stopped moving, as it drove Taemin's wing deeper into his shoulder. The air around them vibrated faintly, only to go back to normal in a heartbeat. Taemin unclenched his jaw when he tasted blood. He licked wetly across the bitten spot, delighting in the shudder that shook Kai's body. Their breaths were quick and irregular, and as the seconds passed, they gradually slowed and synchronized.

“I'd say I won this one, hm?” Taemin purred, giving Kai's neck another lick for good measure. Kai growled. His forehead was pressed to the floor, his eyes squeezed shut. His shoulder probably hurt. “Want me to take this out?” Taemin asked and pulled his wing back just a little. Kai made a muffled noise.

“Yes,” he snarled through gritted teeth.

“I will if you behave. If you don't — I have no problem fucking you like this.”

Kai's hips were wedged between Taemin's legs, and so Taemin distinctly felt them roll at his words. Then Kai raised his head and his eyes fluttered open. The glint in them sent a shiver down Taemin's spine.

“I'll behave,” he breathed.

Taemin nodded and unceremoniously yanked his wing free, making Kai yelp with pain. A thin coat of blood stained the cloth of his shirt. Taemin mused how much a human would bleed from a wound like this. Probably a lot more.

Kai pushed himself up on his elbows and knees and made a move to straighten himself, but Taemin put a firm hand on his back before he could.

“You can stay down there,” Taemin said, letting his fingers trail down Kai's side to his slim waist. “Since you like doing it from behind.”

Kai groaned and shot him a dirty look over his shoulder. Taemin answered with a smirk and a lick of his lips as he crawled up behind Kai and slid a hand between his legs. It was no surprise that Kai was already hard as a rock. He seemed to always be hard. His cock twitched when Taemin brushed his palm over it through the sheer fabric.

“All right, let's not drag this out.” Taemin pulled back and gave Kai's butt a pat. “Take off those pants and spread your legs for me.”

Kai followed Taemin's orders, defiant in attitude but eager in speed. A familiar rush of arousal washed through Taemin at the sight, and he couldn't help putting his hands on Kai's perky ass some more. He rubbed and squeezed, down and up Kai's equally firm thighs, skin smooth and warm, watching them slip apart farther under his touch.

“Let's not drag this out my ass,” Kai grumbled under his breath. Taemin gave said ass a slap, hard enough to make Kai flinch and moan.

“If you're that impatient to have my dick in you, fine.” Taemin pushed his robe and undergarments out of the way, freeing his erection, and rammed it into Kai's hole. It tore a raw scream from Kai, and he clenched around Taemin hard, making him hiss and grab onto Kai's hips to steady himself.

“Ow, fuck— hurts,” Kai gasped out, pushing his ass back and farther down Taemin's cock. “Taemin, _fuck_.”

Taemin's breath came in choppy bursts of air. The tightness was almost unbearable, yet at the same time its heat was so addictive. Kai was whimpering beneath him, hips rocking back and forth in Taemin's grasp. He really was impatient. Taemin had to grip on hard to keep him in place.

Eventually, he fumbled around Kai's front for his cock, collecting some of the excessive amount of slick, viscous precum with his fingers to smear where Kai's hole was stretched around him. Thanks to Kai's restless hips, the lubricant spread quickly, and Taemin repeated the action until the slide of his dick was smooth and accompanied by slick noises.

“You always leak so much,” Taemin said, voice hoarse with suppressed moans. His index finger circled the head of Kai's cock, coaxing out another twitch and dribble of precum. Kai was blinking up at him lazily, his head resting on his forearms and a flush high in his cheeks.

“It's a perfectly normal amount for an incubus, you know?”

“I know. It's cute.”

An amused sort of irritation flashed across Kai's face, quickly replaced by utter bliss when Taemin pulled back and thrust into him. It was still tight, but the added slickness allowed Taemin to get the depth and force he wanted, and he didn't hold back.

Soon Kai was mewling and moaning with every thrust, his lips parted and shiny with drool. They looked so soft and plump. If Taemin hadn't been in the middle of something else, he'd have put his dick in there on the spot. He gave an especially harsh thrust that had Kai clenching his teeth and arching his back. Then another one, just to watch it arch some more.

The tear in Kai's shirt around his shoulder caught Taemin's eye, and he remembered the cut he had landed on Kai's chest earlier. It would be a waste, Taemin thought as he leaned forward on impulse; he reached around Kai's body, easily slipped his hand past the torn fabric, found a nipple, and pinched it. Kai winced and squirmed, his moans rising in pitch. Every time Taemin tightened his grip or rubbed a little, Kai's hips pushed back to meet his halfway.

He didn't let up until he missed the leverage of his hand in his thrusts. When he straightened back up, Kai gave him a glance of which Taemin wasn't quite sure if it was reproachful or turned on. Taemin grinned and patted Kai's butt reassuringly, and the glare he received in return was definitely reproachful.

It was always a bit of a shame when Taemin felt his climax approaching. He did his best to stave it off, to make the mounting pleasure last as long as possible before it crossed that final border. Eventually though, he would have to give in. His fingers dug into Kai's ass as he spread it apart so he could fuck into him more easily.

“You're about to come, aren't you?” Kai's voice shook with the force of Taemin's thrusts.

Taemin sucked in a breath and licked his lips. “Yeah.”

“Good.” One of Kai's hands pulled out from under his head and disappeared under his body. His eyelids fluttered, and a whine left his lips. The sight and sound of it made Taemin pick up even more speed. His groin was burning, pleasure building and building until it finally overflowed. He groaned and his hips stuttered as his orgasm washed over him, cock twitching and spilling deep inside Kai.

Once Taemin's breathing had calmed, he started to pull out shakily. Just then, Kai moaned, a guttural and unhinged sound, and clenched around Taemin's oversensitive dick like a vise. Taemin squeaked, pushing at Kai's ass and staggering backward on his knees. By the time he slipped out, he was sore, and Kai was watching him with a wicked grin on his flushed face.

“You're too much,” Taemin grumbled and gave Kai's butt another slap. “Don't think I'll go easy on you.”

Kai's eyebrows shot up. “Go easy on me? You want a round two?”

Taemin scoffed, although part of him wanted to consider. “No, but we're not done here. I have a request to fulfill.”

“Oh, that— wait, don't do anything yet!” Kai rolled over to lie on his back, wincing slightly. His half-lidded eyes never left Taemin's, as though he thought Taemin might attack him if he looked away. Not an entirely unfounded concern. “You don't have to slay me, I'll just leave.”

Taemin frowned. “So you already did what they asked from you? I thought all you did was scare the pants off that Junmyeon human.”

“No, no. Well, I didn't _scare_ them off. Anyway, I feel the Pull and everything. It's not all that strong, but it's enough for me to leave. Apparently, it doesn't take much to qualify as a good time for him. The poor man must be really lonely.”

This was something Taemin had rarely witnessed, and every time he had, it had been Kai: he would linger in the human world well after his summoner's request could be considered fulfilled, well after any other demon would have been long gone. Taemin shook his head.

“I don't get you.”

Kai shrugged, and a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You don't need to.”

Then the light of the moon began to shine through rather than on him until Taemin saw the coarse floorboards more clearly than Kai, and before long, Taemin was alone. That very moment, he felt the familiar pulling sensation in his stomach, from where it gradually spread into his chest, his arms, his legs. It took a while to grow strong enough that he could lean into it and permit it to drag him away and back to the Realm.


	2. II

Not many of the other drudes were there when Taemin got back. Wendy, Changmin, and Xiumin were floating around together, their colorful, smoke-like silhouettes close enough to brush at times, so that they seemed to mingle. Taemin quite liked the shadow form they all wore here; it was comfortable, formless and weightless. Sometimes he wished he could carry it over into the human world. Then again, some things might not be as enjoyable if he were stuck as a wafting cloud of smoke.

He was happy to see that one of the others in particular was present. He wanted to vent his frustration about his disappointingly inept summoners, and he knew Key would understand. If anything, Key was even testier when it came to working for humans he considered below his level. Especially since he considered most humans to be below his level.

“And there were _four_ of them?” he exclaimed when Taemin told him about his latest summoning. “I don't know how you put up with it, honestly.”

“The usual. I try to get it done as fast as possible. And I drag out the fun parts.”

Key scoffed. “Can't remember the last time I had fun during a summoning. Any fun gets spoiled by having to let brainless cretins boss me around.”

Taemin felt much better already. Talking to Key never failed to cheer him up after a disappointing excursion to the human world. “I bet my summoners are dumber than yours. You're too difficult to summon for a complete idiot.”

“Doesn't make much of a difference. It just means I get summoned by idiots who think they're geniuses because they managed a complex ritual. It's not any less annoying, believe me.”

“I suppose you're right.” Taemin sighed, and after a moment of consideration, he let himself float up and away slowly. He felt like unwinding for a bit.

The omnipresent flow of everyone's energies calmed him like nothing else. His shadow was light and airy, and his thoughts drifted off. He let them roam where they wanted to, as he often did when he relaxed. He was hardly surprised that they wandered to Kai; first to their most recent encounter, letting it unfold in his mind once more, then to the one before that, and further and further into the past.

Their first encounter was one of his favorite memories to revisit. It was so old and yet so vivid. He couldn't be sure how long it had been since their paths had crossed for the first time, but he knew centuries had passed in the human world. They had both been young and inexperienced back then. He distinctly remembered hearing the other drudes talk about how they fought and slayed other demons, remembered panicking at the thought of a battle to the death. It had been Key who'd reassured him there was nothing to worry about.

“Another demon can kill you no more than a human can,” he had told Taemin, “no matter how strong they are. Slaying is different — it hurts quite badly, especially if you failed to fulfill the request of your summoner beforehand. But it will only pull you back to the Realm, nothing more.”

Still, Taemin was horribly nervous when he was first summoned to slay another demon. After all, he knew about fighting only in theory. It was an incubus he had to face, and according to Key, incubi and succubi were fun to battle. Taemin knew to be mindful of its claws. He also knew his wings could hurt it and weaken its power, so he had a valuable weapon against it; however, that didn't count for much, since they were still rather short and stubby. Whenever he was summoned to instill nightmares into a sleeping human, as was the usual practice, he couldn't just straddle them and cover them with his wings like the other drudes — he had to all but lay on top of the human and flap his wings as quickly as he could so the nightmares would reach them. It made him feel pathetic, and he didn't know how he was supposed to use his wings to his advantage in a fight.

The mad grin on Kai's face when he first caught sight of him would be burned into Taemin's memory forever. It made his skin crawl and tingle at the same time.

“Are you a drude?” Kai asked, his voice a deep, velvety purr.

Taemin wasn't sure his own would work without shaking. He gave a nod, and Kai snickered.

“What are you gonna do? Give me nightmares?”

Taemin tried to think of something to say — there had to be a witty retort to that. But he couldn't come up with anything, and so he remained silent. Kai cocked his head. Then he squinted, and delight spread across his face.

“Hold on, look at your wings! How are you even gonna reach me with those? They're tiny.”

Taemin blushed. “Shut up!” he snapped, squaring his shoulders and clenching his fists. He was not going to wait and let his confidence be crushed further just so he could delay the inevitable fight.

Kai's eyes were gleaming. “Ooh, that was fierce.”

His posture changed. He shifted his weight, his shoulders slumped forward, his knees bent slightly. Taemin got ready to intercept him once he charged. Then Kai's brow furrowed in concentration, a strange flicker filled the air around him, and he disappeared. Before Taemin could process what was happening, an arm was squeezing his throat and something sharp dug into his neck. It was only thanks to his frantically fluttering wings that he managed to escape Kai's hold and stumble away from him.

The fight that followed was wild and violent and a complete mess. Because of Kai's overflowing confidence and feral aggression, Taemin had taken him to be a seasoned fighter at the time. In hindsight, it was obvious neither of them knew what they were doing. Much to Taemin's surprise, Kai once told him he'd assumed Taemin was much more experienced than him, because he had seemed so calm and aloof.

While Taemin had tried his best to keep up a cool appearance, he'd felt anything but calm and aloof during their confrontation. Least of all when they rolled across the floor in a tangle of limbs, each of them trying to tackle the other, and Kai eventually ended up on top of him.

He was pressing Taemin's legs down with his own and pinning both of his hands to the floor, his sharp claws digging into skin and his tousled hair tickling Taemin's forehead. One of Taemin's wings was squashed under his own back, the other was curled upward, its tip almost grazing Kai's chest. Taemin's mind was reeling. He had this odd sense that they were teetering close to a turning point, where he could either be overpowered or gain the upper hand. Kai was panting above him, the puffs of air searing hot on Taemin's skin. A sweet scent emanated from him, one that reminded Taemin of exotic and dangerous wildflowers. He struggled and flapped his free wing a few times to see if he could extend it any more, to no avail.

He was so busy deciding on a strategy that he hardly registered the change at first. When he did, he froze. Kai's claws were no longer pressing into Taemin's wrists. Instead, his thumbs were slowly rubbing up and down; caressing. His body, big and warm and oppressive above Taemin, was shifting restlessly, just a little at a time. Something strange curled in Taemin's belly. He blinked up at Kai, who looked back at him thoughtfully, a smoldering intensity to his gaze. Then Kai leaned down and kissed him.

Taemin's mind went blank. There was only the heavy heat of Kai's body and the heady feeling of Kai devouring his mouth. His full lips were soft, but their press was hungry and impatient, both savoring and demanding more. Taemin's mouth fell open — whether from shock or to give Kai access he didn't know — and Kai didn't waste a second. He pushed inside, licking and sucking on Taemin's tongue. A shiver ran through Taemin, his body was blazing, burning up…

Kai gasped and pulled away, recoiling as though he'd been scalded. He stared at Taemin with wide eyes. Blood was dripping onto Taemin's robe from where his wing had speared Kai's chest, a deep stab right through his heart. Taemin didn't move except for his rapidly rising and falling chest, staring back in silence.

Suddenly Kai's lips stretched out into a grin, crazed, exhilarated, and beautiful. He was growing translucent fast and gone within mere seconds. The expression on his face was stuck in Taemin's head long after Kai had melted into nothingness.

Many of the other drudes congratulated Taemin upon his return to the Realm. Key was more cheerful than Taemin had ever seen him, pink patches blooming all over his shadow. “Your first slay,” he lilted. “I knew you had it in you. Just wait until your wings are a bit bigger, you'll be a force to be reckoned with. Do you feel good?”

Taemin did feel good. Strangely restless, but good. Back then, he had no idea that the first was far from the last time he would see Kai.

His wings had already grown a fair bit by the time they came face to face once more. Taemin was using them to instill a few nasty nightmares into a peacefully slumbering human when he was interrupted. Apparently, someone had caught wind of the plans of Taemin's summoner and tasked Kai with foiling them.

They fought again, more methodically than before, since both of them had gathered experience in the meantime. Not only Taemin's wings had undergone a growth spurt, but Kai's claws had also become longer, and he knew how to put them to good use. As close as Taemin got to pinning Kai to the wall with his wings, in the end it was Kai who came out on top. However, instead of dealing the final blow, he breathed into Taemin's ear, “Want me to make up for what I'm going to do to you?”

Taemin's answer sealed their fate. They had sex, Kai fucking Taemin into oblivion in positions Taemin hadn't known existed, and probably causing a few humans a sleepless night instead of one filled with nightmares. By the end, he just lay there, spaced out and sated, and readily let Kai slit his throat. It hurt, of course, but being slayed was not what stuck in Taemin's mind most strongly from that night.

“I told you incubi are fun,” Key giggled when he heard the story.

Taemin found himself hoping to see Kai again for a rematch soon.

His wish was fulfilled, and so was his desire to defeat Kai this time around. Their fight ended with Kai face down on the ground, his powers exhausted, arms twisted behind his back, and Taemin on top of him. Taemin vividly remembered how Kai's body had finally gone limp underneath him and Kai had turned his head to look up at him, face flushed and gaze heated.

“Go ahead,” he whispered, “you can do to me whatever you want. I'm not fragile.”

That went straight to Taemin's dick, and a minute later Kai was choking on it as Taemin fucked his face roughly. Soon after that, he was buried deep inside the tight, velvety heat of Kai's ass, head spinning with how good it felt. When they were done, Taemin made short work of stabbing Kai with both of his by then fairly impressive wings.

Still many encounters followed. They spent the first few times studying each other's patterns and testing out each other's limits, and it quickly became clear they were an even match, in combat and otherwise. Each of them was willing to take what the other wanted to give, and give what the other wanted to take.

Their paths continued to grow intertwined as time went on, crossing more and more frequently. It appeared — at least that was Taemin's theory — humans had at some point caught on to the fact that he and Kai were quite effective in fighting each other. Whether the humans were aware of the exact nature of that effectiveness, Taemin wasn't sure. They might have been, since he and Kai never particularly bothered to be quiet about what they did. In any case, it became a popular choice to summon one of them if the other was causing trouble, likely also helped by the fact that neither of their rituals was too complicated.

And so things took their course, with only minor hitches along the way. The biggest one occurred when Taemin once slayed Kai without fucking him (by complete accident, as he was still getting used to his increased wingspan at the time); Kai spent most of their next encounter sulking and refusing to fight. Other than that and all things considered, it was a rather smooth development.

After some time, Taemin saw Kai at least once a human decade, sometimes more, seldom less. Their routine had soon been solidified, and Taemin had no desire to change it. Why change something that had kept him entertained for centuries?


	3. III

“Taemin.”

He turned and saw a pitch-black shadow floating toward him. “Whoa. In a bad mood?”

“Not really,” said Key. To Taemin's surprise, he came to hover so close that the wispy outlines of his shadow brushed Taemin's. There was a short pause before Key continued. “I'm being summoned.”

“Is it not strong enough?”

“It is. I'll be gone any moment now.”

“Then… why are you still here?” Taemin asked, confused. He felt the warm sizzle where their shadows touched.

Key snorted. “How charming. I just wanted to talk to you before I go.”

“All right.” His answer hadn't done much to dispel Taemin's bemusement. It was unusual for any one of them to even finish an ongoing conversation when they were summoned, let alone start one. “Did you want to… talk about something in particular?”

“I don't think so,” said Key. His shadow flickered; he had to be actively fighting the Call of the summoning. “I was just looking for a small chat.”

The intervals between the flickers in his shadow were becoming shorter. His next word came out in a whisper.

“Goodbye.”

With that, he was gone, leaving a puzzled Taemin behind.

Taemin sat up and looked down at the human sleeping below him. She finally seemed to be sufficiently restless and sweat-drenched, because the Pull was starting to grow rather intense. He decided to leave it at that.

“You missed the angel,” Changmin greeted him back to the Realm. “He came by to check in on us, and he left just now.”

“Onew again?” asked Taemin, and Changmin hummed in affirmation.

“Yeah. Either he really likes us or he keeps losing bets.”

“He doesn't come here for you, that's for sure.”

“What? Why wouldn't he come here for me?”

“Well, you do bully him an awful lot,” said Xiumin, who was floating by. Changmin gave a cackling laugh.

“I can't help it. It's not my fault angels are adorable when they get flustered.”

Taemin left the two to tease each other some more. If he was honest, he was a little cross he had missed Onew. In the past, he had avoided the angels if he could, intimidated by their presence, but he'd gotten used to them over time, and some of them had even grown on him. They brought their very own energy to the Realm whenever they visited it, which he would have welcomed with open arms just about now, seeing as Key still hadn't returned from his latest summoning.

The equilibrium of energy was essential to the Realm, ever-present, permeating every last bit of it. They needed it to thrive, needed it to replenish when returning from the human realm, especially if they'd spent a long time there, more so if they'd been slayed. They needed it, and every one of them, even the youngest drudes, contributed their part — the more they were, the stronger their shared pool of power grew, and the more they could all prosper.

Naturally, this balance fluctuated whenever a drude was summoned. The absence of any of them was tangible, but when Key or Changmin weren't there, it tore the biggest hole into the energy flow, since they were the oldest. Taemin tended to particularly miss Key's vibrant, buzzing energy; almost as much as his self-assuredness and snarky comments. He hoped it wouldn't be too long until Key came back.

Key didn't come back. Taemin was sure at least a human decade had passed and wondered what kind of complicated request Key was trying to fulfill that took him so long. At some point, Wendy told Taemin about the rumors which were floating around — that Key had gone rogue.

“He would never,” Taemin said immediately.

It wasn't the first time he heard rumors like this, although they weren't common; they cropped up sometimes when one of them was gone for an unusually long amount of time. It was less common still that such speculations actually proved true. Not many demons were keen on trading the Realm for the human world and their shadow for their bodily form permanently. In fact, Taemin had never seen it happen himself, only heard about it.

Stories of rogue demons were popular ones to tell, as there wasn't much in eternity that was worth talking about. If something took place in the human world, chances were it would make for good small talk but not affect anything in the long run. This was one of the few things that could happen in the Realm, that could cause ripples in a surface otherwise smooth as glass.

However, it was rare for even the more solitary of their kind; of course, the odd weather demon went rogue every couple of centuries, but drudes were quite social, comparatively speaking. It didn't seem possible one of them, even Key, could hate summonings or love the human world enough to want to cut themselves and their energy off from the rest of them.

Apparently, Wendy disagreed. “He's been gone for a while though. It would make sense.”

“There's no way he'd cut his ties to us, Wendy. He's ancient, humans summon him for complex requests… He's dealing with a tough nut, that's all.”

“I guess that's possible.” She sounded doubtful. “But you have to admit, he's been really fed up with humans lately.”

The smoke of Taemin's shadow bristled as he was becoming more irritated by the moment. “He's _always_ fed up with humans. Do you really think he'd abandon all of us and take his energy for himself?”

“I don't know. He was floating by when he was summoned last time, and he said some odd things.”

“Like what?”

Wendy was billowing uncomfortably. “Well… he said goodbye.”

Her words hit Taemin like the blow of a hammer. Not because he was surprised to hear them, but because they were true. Key had said goodbye to him as well, he remembered.

Taemin tried to think back to when he'd last seen Key, tried to recall what else he had said and how he had acted. It was hard to do. Taemin never paid close attention to things that happened in the Realm; time passed and passed here, his mind settling in a hazy sort of calm with the knowledge that he and the other drudes were going to return to and dwell in this place forever. There was no need for hello or goodbye. They were always there.

And yet, Key had said goodbye.


	4. IV

Taemin might have felt bad for Kang Seulgi if he hadn't been so annoyed. Her nightmares had to be horrible, as his mood was horrible.

He'd had a plan. The doubts and questions about Key's absence had nagged at him constantly, until he had finally decided to find out himself whether or not there was any truth to the rumors going around. He would get his hands on a Book of Spells when he next visited the human world and look up Key's entry — if it was still there and readable, he had not gone rogue yet. The promise of answers had eased Taemin's mind somewhat.

However, his new summoner thwarted any such plans, since she kept her Book of Spells locked away in a wooden box within a protective magic circle, effectively preventing him from touching it. On top of that, she had ordered him to visit that Seulgi human every night for an entire month. It made him feel cheated and grumpy. He was already getting impatient, and time passed at such a tedious pace in the human world.

As he was leaning over the sleeping woman, covering her with his wings, he thought back to some of his less than impressive summoners wistfully. Junmyeon and his idiot friends probably would have let him read through their Book of Spells a thousand times over if he had so much as hissed at them.

“Having fun?”

The whisper and hot puff of breath against his neck came so suddenly that he almost toppled over and onto Seulgi. He whipped his head around, his body twisting as much as the awkward position permitted, and saw Kai perched on the edge of the small mattress.

“No,” said Taemin, having regained his composure. He kept his voice low as well so Seulgi wouldn't wake. “Why are you here?”

Kai raised his eyebrows. “What do you think? A request to get rid of you.”

“Who's your summoner?”

“You're sitting on her.”

Taemin's eyes went wide. His heart was pounding all of a sudden, his thoughts running wild. He folded his wings, hopped off the mattress with light feet, and flitted out of the room. It took Kai about a second to appear in front of him and push him back against the wall, his lower arm pressing into Taemin's chest.

“What are you doing?” Kai asked, suspicion dripping from every syllable. Taemin swallowed, trying not to let the twitch in his underpants distract him.

“Give me a moment before we start, okay? There's something I need to check first.”

“Oh.” Kai didn't let up. “What do you need to check?”

Taemin hesitated, then wondered why. It wasn't as if he had anything to hide. “I need to have a look at Seulgi's Book of Spells. There are rumors that one of us drudes has gone rogue, and I want to see for myself if it's true. I don't think it is, but I want to check.”

Kai's brow furrowed, and his arm pressed a little harder. Then he shrugged and stepped back, releasing Taemin. Kai followed closely behind while Taemin began to search the tiny house. He quickly discovered the room that was obviously used for magic; there were impressive amounts of amulets, charms, herbs, and books on the shelves and desk, all carefully arranged. The book he was looking for wasn't hard to find, since it was lying out in the open on the desk all by itself. However, it was wrapped up tightly in thin metal chains and there were several layers of intricate protective circles drawn around and on it.

Taemin cursed under his breath. He could practically feel Kai's eyes on him.

“She's not a bad magician, actually,” said Kai. “It makes sense that she wouldn't just have it lying around. I didn't even see it when she summoned me.”

Taemin nodded. His hands were tearing at his sleeves, his lips pressed together. “I don't think he'd do it,” he muttered, aware Kai was listening but speaking to himself. “He's been sick of all the summoning, but he wouldn't go rogue.”

“What if he did?” Kai suddenly asked.

“He wouldn't.”

“Why not? If he was sick of everything, maybe he did.”

Taemin shot him an annoyed look. “Because it would be selfish, that's why. He wouldn't rob us of his energy, drudes aren't like that.”

Kai huffed. “Well, it's just as selfish to force him to stay in the Realm if he's that unhappy there.”

Anger welled up in Taemin's chest, immediately followed by the desire to forget about it, to forget about anything. He turned around to Kai, and seeing the darkness in his gaze and the firm set of his jaw made Taemin's stomach churn with want. Distraction was exactly what he needed right now. “You don't even know him,” he said coldly, “so just shut up and use your mouth for something it's actually good at.”

The shock that flashed across Kai's face lit a spark of grim satisfaction in Taemin. Then Kai's lips curled back as he bared his teeth, and he knocked Taemin to the ground without even giving him the chance to blink.

By the time Taemin found his bearings, his stomach was already sore from how hard Kai was slamming his fist into it over and over. He curled a wing in front of it to protect it and rolled sideways, coughing. A dull pain shot through his rib-cage, forcing a groan out of him. He jabbed out his wings blindly, but they didn't find their target. Instead, the sharp slice of claws cut through one of them and left burning streaks all over it.

He was fighting a losing battle. Soon he was on his back, Kai's hands locked around his throat and squeezing until Taemin was choking, ears ringing and head fuzzy with lack of oxygen. His vision became blurry, darkened, and he desperately tapped and tugged at Kai's wrists.

Finally his grip loosened, and Taemin gasped, almost choking again on the big gulps of air he sucked in greedily. He heard Kai's voice, soft as velvet.

“Ready to give up yet?”

Taemin left his eyes closed. His throat burned with every breath, and he was hot all over. “Yes.”

“Look at me.”

Not without indignation, he complied. For once, Kai wasn't grinning, or even gloating over his victory. He was hunched over, his face hard and unreadable, eyes hidden under the shadow of his disheveled hair. Taemin shivered, vague arousal simmering in his groin.

Kai gripped the front of Taemin's robe and ripped through the fabric, long claws scraping carelessly over skin and making Taemin hiss, until the garment was completely severed and slipped down his bare sides. The vulnerability of being so exposed had his half-hard dick twitching. Kai caught the movement, his eyes trailing down to Taemin's crotch, closely followed by his fingers. He still hadn't retracted his claws. Taemin squirmed a bit when they grazed his inner thighs, but Kai only used them to do to Taemin's undergarments what he had done to the rest of his clothing. The tip of his tongue peeked out between his lips as he stared down at Taemin's cock. It twitched again, as if Kai had willed it to with his gaze. The corner of his mouth pulled up slightly, and Taemin blushed.

“Get up and bend over that desk,” said Kai quietly.

Taemin considered refusing, but it didn't seem worth it. The fleeting gratification he would gain from it wasn't enough to justify delaying what they both wanted. So he got to his feet, slipping off what was left of his clothes, and put his elbows on the desk, as far away from the book and its protective circles as possible. He had to push aside a few neatly arranged gemstones and writing materials to make it work. A warm hand came to rest on his lower back.

“I'm not going to stretch you.”

His breath hitched. The hand was rubbing up and down now but made no move to do anything beyond that, as if Kai was waiting for him to protest. Or to beg. Taemin sneered. “Do whatever you want.”

The hand tightened, blunt nails digging into his hip. “I will.”

He winced when the tip of Kai's dick nudged between his ass cheeks and slid over his hole a couple of times, coating it in slickness. It disappeared briefly, and Taemin heard the telltale sound of Kai spreading his precum over his own cock. Then it was back against Taemin's hole and promptly started to press inside.

Taemin tried to stay relaxed and keep his breathing even. Kai was going slowly, but he never paused. He was drilling into Taemin with a steady relentlessness that made Taemin's belly clench and his toes curl. Every time it felt like he couldn't possibly stretch any further, Kai continued filling him up more and more. Taemin gritted his teeth against the growing pain, his hands scrabbling for something to hold on to. A few things got knocked over and something flew off the desk in the process, but eventually one hand found the edge of the desk, the other clawed at the tabletop. The rough wood chafing the skin of his cheek was almost welcome, as it created a distraction from the burning sensation of Kai's dick splitting him open.

By the time Kai's pelvis finally pressed against Taemin's butt, Taemin was trembling and quiet whines were escaping his lips. He didn't get to adjust or even breathe properly. Kai pulled back and thrust inside, and then he was hammering into him so hard that Taemin saw stars. He bit down on his own arm to muffle his cries, nearly breaking skin when Kai's dick dragged roughly across his sweet spot.

Suddenly Kai's hand threaded into Taemin's hair and yanked on it, elbow pressing into Taemin's back between his wings and preventing him from giving in to the pull. Taemin released his arm and groaned openly at how the dragging pain in his scalp sent tingles down his entire spine and straight to his aching cock. He struggled against it, curious what Kai would do. Predictably, Kai's clutch on his hair tightened, but it also gained Taemin a harsh slap on the ass. He sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth and struggled again, getting another pull and another slap in return. His ass was starting to sting with how forcefully Kai's hips smacked into it on every thrust.

A jab right to his sweet spot drove Taemin forward on the desk, his shoulder bumping into and knocking over some more things. Something touched his hand. He was about to brush it aside when he saw it was a small phial that seemed to have fallen over and rolled across the tabletop. He immediately knew what was inside. A shudder went through him; his fingers curled around the phial, and he extended his arm backward. Thanks to his arched back, he managed to reach Kai's hip and tap it. Kai's thrusts didn't slow, but his hand left Taemin's hair, then their fingers brushed together, and Taemin let the phial slip into his hand.

After a moment of silence, Kai snorted, and his grip on Taemin's waist tightened. He abruptly pulled out, making Taemin jump, and grabbed him by his injured wing. Taemin whimpered at the pressure to the sensitive skin. He let himself be dragged off the desk and shoved to the floor, landing on his back once more, his damaged wing spread out beside him to spare it the friction. The wood was smooth but too hard to be comfortable with how sore his body was.

He screamed when Kai rammed his dick back into him, pushing Taemin's legs apart far enough for it to burn. Kai's bottom lip was caught between his teeth, wildness gleaming brightly in his eyes. Instead of building a rhythm, he pulled back out completely. Taemin whined, his hole clenching around nothing, and then Kai's cock was prodding it again, sliding inside in one smooth thrust, only to pull right back out. He did it again and again until Taemin was squirming helplessly, hands clutched in his own hair after having failed to find purchase anywhere else. His rim felt raw and stretched. Each thrust punched a groan out of him, and the emptiness whenever Kai's dick wasn't inside him was driving him crazy. He had long lost count of how many times Kai repeated his pattern.

When he finally didn't pull out after an especially deep thrust and followed it up with another, Taemin moaned with relief and his legs wrapped around Kai's waist, coaxing him to stay inside. He did and resumed the brutal pace he'd set when fucking Taemin over the desk.

Kai was staring at him intently. Taemin held his gaze, even though it was tempting to let his eyes flutter shut at the flashes of agonizing pleasure that shot through his groin and the pathetic noises they drew from him. Kai licked his lips and leaned in closer.

Taemin had almost forgotten about the phial, but as Kai brought it out and opened it, the anticipation welled back up inside him.

“Open your mouth,” Kai whispered, and Taemin complied before he even finished speaking.

A drop of holy water seared his tongue. He groaned, opening up wider for more, shivering as the liquid dripped on his lips and into his mouth.

“Swallow.”

Taemin's back arched off the floor. It was as though molten lava was flowing down his throat, the delicious burn buzzing through his every vein, tearing him to pieces in the best way possible. Even after it eased off, he could still sense it, an afterglow simmering hotly under his skin. It melded beautifully with the too-intense pleasure that flared up each time Kai grazed that bundle of nerves inside him.

“Again,” Taemin panted. There was a stutter in Kai's rhythm. Taemin squinted up at him, and the expression on Kai's face, torn between flustered and aroused, almost made him laugh. There was virtually nothing Kai was squeamish about during sex except for this.

“You have to be the only demon who'd ever touch that stuff voluntarily,” Kai said. Taemin relished the little shudder in his voice.

“I bet— _ngh_ … you'd love it if you tried. You get turned on by anything anyway.”

Kai bent forward and wrenched Taemin's head back by his hair once more. Taemin's jaw went slack on a moan, and then he felt the burn of holy water on his tongue and moaned louder. It was more intense the second time, when it stung his already sore skin.

“Swallow.”

Taemin didn't. Instead, he grabbed Kai by the neck, yanked him down, and licked a fat stripe across his cheek. Kai recoiled with a pained yelp, and Taemin grinned because Kai's dick had jerked inside him hard.

There was a red mark on Kai's cheek where the holy water had touched it, and it made the look of cold fury on his face even more dangerous. Taemin waited with bated breath. Kai reached out a hand, gripped Taemin's jaw, and shoved, forcing him to tilt his head back. Taemin couldn't see what he did next, but it wasn't long until he could feel it.

The first drop landed in the middle of his chest like a spark of fire, making him flinch and his pulse quicken with the realization of what was happening. As Kai's hips picked up pace, drops of holy water became an unsteady trickle that wandered over Taemin's torso and left behind a smarting trail, and he squirmed and thrashed, trying to get away from it without really wanting to. His cock was throbbing so hotly he could barely stand it anymore, he was burning up inside and out. A few drops landed on one of his nipples just as Kai hit his sweet spot, and that did it. Taemin's hips bucked and he came untouched with a wail, pleasure rushing through his groin and melting the onslaught of sensations into pure, heady bliss.

Then it slowly faded, leaving the soreness to sink in. There was the occasional pleasurable aftershock, but most of all his body hurt, especially the wounded wing and where the holy water had burned his chest and throat. It didn't help that Kai was still clutching his thighs and fucking into him roughly. Taemin groaned and winced at the blunt jabs to his oversensitive prostate. He struggled a bit, but Kai only pushed Taemin's legs apart farther and thrust in deeper, and so Taemin eventually let himself fall back to the floor in defeat, lips pressed together to keep sounds from escaping.

Kai's merciless pace might have gotten Taemin hard again, but it didn't last long enough for that. Soon, Kai made a noise somewhere between a groan and a growl, his mouth dropped open, and his eyebrows drew up. Taemin watched Kai fall apart, his face scrunching up in the most lovely and desperate way as he spilled into Taemin and rode out his orgasm. Finally, his hips stilled.

A shaky exhale left Taemin's lips. Something told him Kai didn't want to talk, and Taemin wasn't sure if he wanted to either. So he was glad, in a way, when Kai bared his claws wordlessly, not even bothering to pull out, and drove them right into Taemin's throat.

A small part of Taemin had held out hope that once he returned to the Realm, Key would be back and all his questions would solve themselves. But of course things weren't so easy. Changmin was there, thankfully, so at least the pain of being slayed would be alleviated soon. For now, Taemin avoided the others in favor of floating around sullenly on his own, soaking in the flow of energy, and brooding.

Was he selfish for wanting Key here with them, in the Realm? Were the others for wanting the same thing? Wasn't it only natural for them to think like that? And who was Kai to lecture him on something he didn't have any idea about? Why did he even care when he was an incubus, who wouldn't be affected by a rogue drude at all?

Taemin pondered until his shadow was a dark gray and his entire being seemed to be made up of a ridiculously long string of questions with no or unclear answers. More and more, he grew sure of one thing at least — he needed to talk to Key in order to make sense of anything. Taemin was determined. Rogue or not, sooner or later, he would find him.


	5. V

_Taemin, we call upon you by the flesh and the blood of our offering. Choi Minho calls you; Kim Jonghyun calls you. We bare to you our souls as we lay down our oath; let the song of my voice be your guide, the dance of the flames be your beacon. We hereby bid you enter this world._

This could be it. Taemin didn't let himself become overly excited, but the possibility of getting the chance to skim through a Book of Spells still made his heart beat fast as soon as it materialized. He quickly spotted the bulky book on some kind of music stand next to the magic circle his summoners stood in. The two humans definitely looked frazzled enough to potentially leave the book lying around without protection after releasing him, so things were shaping up well. Both of them had dark circles under their eyes, and their hair was sticking out in all directions from their topknots. The shorter man looked especially exhausted; he barely seemed to notice a demon had appeared in front of him, and when Taemin brought the sacrificed snake back to life, he yawned loudly. Taemin was a little offended.

“Hey Jonghyun, don't fall asleep,” said the taller man, who accordingly had to be Minho.

“'M awake,” Jonghyun mumbled, swaying on his feet. He tapped a finger against the Book of Spells. “Should we do the next one?”

Taemin frowned. They couldn't seriously be planning to summon another demon without even acknowledging his presence.

“How about you deal with this one first?” he said stiffly, the candles around him flaring bright blue.

“Oh.” The coldness in his voice seemed to have woken Jonghyun up some. He blinked and looked at Taemin as though he hadn't seen him before. “I'm sorry. Did we forget something?”

“Telling me why you bothered calling me here, for example.”

Jonghyun rubbed his sleeve over his eyes. “Right, right. I apologize, but we have a bit of an unusual situation here. We are going to require more than one demon for it, since we'll need you to fight one of your own who's very strong, and rogue on top of that. We ask you to be patient for just a little longer while we summon your reinforcement.”

Only one of Jonghyun's words stuck in Taemin's mind. _Rogue_. His mouth was suddenly dry. “Tell me the rogue demon's name, and I will wait as long as you want me to.”

He had expected to hear Key's name even before Jonghyun said it. Nevertheless, it made Taemin's stomach drop through the floor, leaving behind an uncomfortable emptiness crawling with disbelief. He tried not to let it show on his face, hoping the white smoke surrounding him would cover him if he failed. Fortunately, the two humans simply turned their attention to the Book of Spells, which was now as useless to Taemin as any book from the human world.

As he averted his eyes from it, they were caught by the two other sigils on the floor. Specifically the one right next to his, surrounded by three pots filled with slightly reddened water. The urge to laugh overcame him, and it wasn't without a touch of mania. Of course _he_ had to be brought into this too.

Taemin watched as Minho and Jonghyun went through the required movements, back to back, giving them room to move their arms without leaving the magic circle. Minho was the one who spoke the incantation, and the pots began to shake and clatter. Orange flames burst from them, a low roar sounded, and Kai appeared out of thin air, his face covered in inky black patterns that wound down his chest and under his low-cut shirt.

Even the way he opened his eyes was sensual; languid, as if he had all the time in the world, and entirely confident that he had the attention of everyone in the room. Which, of course, he did.

“Pleasure to meet you,” he purred, and Taemin could virtually feel the humans' rise in body temperature. Then Kai's gaze flickered, and he caught sight of Taemin. His eyebrows arched. “And you,” he said, but there was something seething underneath his husky voice that reminded Taemin of how he had looked just before he'd ripped up Taemin's throat the last time they had met.

“Y-yes, pleasure's all ours,” said Jonghyun, face pink, while Minho tried fixing his messy topknot. “My name is Kim Jonghyun, and this is Choi Minho. Uh, I believe you and Taemin are sufficiently acquainted already. We will release you shortly, so please bear with us for a little while. We have one more summoning to perform.”

The hollowness inside Taemin knotted up at the implication. They would be released, and then they would have to fight Key.

It suddenly struck him that there was something about it that bothered him, apart from the impending battle. There was something that didn't quite make sense.

“Why is the demon you want us to fight even interested in you?” he couldn't help asking.

The humans exchanged a wary glance, probably gauging how sensitive this information was and whether withholding it was worth the risk of crossing Taemin. Minho shrugged. “I summoned him in the past,” he said. “Well, we did, but it was my idea. The more difficult rituals in this book seemed like an exciting challenge at the time, so I talked Jonghyun into trying one out. It didn't go so well. We made it through somehow, but we must have offended Key pretty badly.”

“He was just mad I didn't let him twist my words,” Jonghyun chimed in, managing to look pleased with himself in spite of the situation. Minho nodded.

“Yes, he didn't like us ordering him around at all.”

Taemin silently agreed — these two seemed like the exact kind of humans that would vex Key the most, especially Minho, and the fact that he hadn't been able to gain the upper hand on them had to have driven him up the wall.

“Anyway,” said Minho, “a few months ago he suddenly turned up and told us he'd gone rogue. He hasn't left us alone since. I guess he likes rubbing it in our faces that we can't control him now.”

“I see,” Taemin murmured. That very much sounded like Key, and yet it was still hard to believe that it was him — that he would ever cut his ties to the Realm. Minho and Jonghyun kept darting nervous glances at Kai; Taemin, meanwhile, kept his eyes stubbornly on the pair.

“You're sure about this, right?” Jonghyun asked all of a sudden, this time addressing Minho only.

“We have to.” Minho's dark eyebrows were pulled together, giving him a stern appearance despite his hair, which was barely tidier than before. “Don't you think we've talked this through enough? He won't leave us alone on his own. If we don't do this, we're stuck with him forever.”

Jonghyun was fidgeting, tugging on his sleeves and worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. “I mean,” he mumbled. He didn't say anything else.

“Oh, come on!” exclaimed Minho. “I know he's all sweet sunshine and roses with you, but you can't act like the nightmares aren't affecting you too. They've been getting worse, haven't they? And they'll only keep getting worse the longer he's here. You don't sleep much anyway, it's not doing you any good — I can't stand watching you like this anymore, and I can't stand him anymore.”

Jonghyun sighed, twisting one sleeve so tightly it was bound to crumple up. Then he nodded. “Fine. Let's.”

While Minho flipped the pages of the Book of Spells, Taemin sensed a pair of eyes on him. The feeling grew more acute with every passing second. He finally turned his head at a soft whisper of his name. Kai was gazing at him intently, as if he was studying him. “What?” Taemin hissed, voice so low he could barely hear himself.

“This is about your drude friend, isn't it? The one you mentioned last time?”

Taemin scowled. “And what if it is?”

Kai shrugged his shoulders. He didn't look smug, which was good for him because it lessened Taemin's urge to impale him on his wings. Or on his dick.

“Are you planning to slay him?” Kai whispered. “Force him to come back?”

With a start, Taemin realized he hadn't truly considered what he would do when the time to face Key came. The questions that had piled up were floating around in his mind, and he needed to talk to Key, to see with his own eyes that he was here, to hear the confirmation from Key's own mouth, to shred that last pathetic scrap of hope that there was some other explanation for all of this. But then what? What if Key didn't want to talk? Taemin knew second-hand that he often ended fights within mere seconds. Did Taemin stand a chance in battle with the help of two other demons?

Kai seemed to have interpreted Taemin's silence one way or another, because he started talking again. “I was thinking, you're probably worried about his energy missing, right? But you won't feel it forever. One of the oldest succubi told me about it. There'll be new demons, and the equilibrium will be back in place before you know it. So it won't really affect—“

“I don't care about any new demons,” Taemin cut him off sharply. “Key's energy is special — _everyone's_ is, it can't just be replaced. You'd get it if it were one of your own kind. But it won't matter now if I can get him back.”

The possibility was so close, so reachable. If they slayed Key — if they could manage to — he would once again be in the Realm with everyone else and the normal run of things would be restored, the only difference being the new bodily form Key would receive for summonings. Taemin tried to tell himself that he might even be able to convince Key this was the best option, but somehow it felt like he was pretending.

“If you slay him,” said Kai, as though he were following along with Taemin's train of thought, “he won't be happy about it. It won't last. And he's not gonna like the part about losing his old bodily form either.”

The desire to remind Kai once more that he didn't know Key overcame Taemin, but he suppressed it because Kai was right: Key wouldn't like that at all. “It's his own fault for going rogue in the first place,” Taemin said instead. “A bodily form is a small price to pay. Everyone will be better off with Key in the Realm, and that includes him.”

Kai shrugged again and looked over to where the humans were busy drawing symbols into the air. “I don't know. He seems to be having a good time.”

There was a sardonic edge to his tone that made Taemin's fists clench reflexively. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Well,” Kai drawled, fixing Taemin with a gaze from hooded eyes, “he obviously fucked the short one. Possibly both of them.”

“He— what?” It wasn't an answer Taemin had expected, and he couldn't help staring at Jonghyun and Minho, the latter of whom was now speaking an incantation.

“You can trust me on things like that,” Kai whispered, and Taemin glared at him.

“Even if he did, that doesn't change—“

A deafening bang resounded in the small room and swallowed his words, along with any other noises. With a bright flash, a demon appeared on the third sigil. Taemin didn't get to meet the other drudes outside of the Realm much, but he had come across Xiumin enough times to recognize his cattish smirk. When he saw Taemin, he gave him a small wave.

“All right, we're finally complete,” said Jonghyun and smiled at the three demons in front of him, then hid another yawn behind his crumpled sleeve. “Thank you for your trouble. We will now make our request.”

He gave Minho one last glance before standing at the edge of the magic circle and raising his voice. “Taemin, Kai, Xiumin. We release you if you pledge to slay the rogue demon Key — immediately and without harming any human beings in any way.”

“I pledge,” said Taemin, two voices beside him echoing the same words. He took a step forward and turned around just in time to see the inky patterns dissolve on Kai's skin as he stepped off his own sigil. The moment Kai's bare feet both touched the plain floor, he was gone, leaving behind the usual wisp of black smoke. The urge to impale him welled back up inside Taemin.

“What's he doing?” asked Xiumin with raised eyebrows.

Taemin grunted. “Being an impatient idiot, I guess. How about we stick together?”

“Yeah. Let's go.”

They rushed to the door, past a drained-looking Minho and a pale-faced Jonghyun, and tried to find their bearings. Taemin could already feel the telltale buzz of Key's presence not too far away.

“So Key really did it?” Xiumin murmured.

It sounded like a question, but Taemin didn't answer. A strange sense of foreboding overcame him as he hastened after Xiumin, driving him to go faster. They burst through the door behind which the presence was strongest.

Kai stood in the middle of the room, head snapping toward Taemin and Xiumin as they came barging in. A bit farther back, sitting on a windowsill and dangling his legs, was Key. Taemin had seen his bodily form only once, yet he recognized it within a heartbeat. The sharp, pale features, the silky, black robe which flowed down his body like liquid, shimmering threads of red weaving through the fabric. The single thing more striking than his flaming red hair were his eyes, piercing and full of such majestic disdain that it couldn't be anyone but Key.

The ominous feeling inside Taemin grew, filling him with vague dread. Something was off. Key was staring at them, surprise written all over his face, but his expression promptly twisted into one of bitter amusement.

“Three, huh,” he said dryly. “I didn't know they wanted to get rid of me that badly.”

Heat flooded Taemin's brain, washing away all questions he'd had except for the most basic and essential one. “Why?” he asked.

Key's gaze lost its sharpness as it fell on him. “I'm sorry.”

Taemin snarled. “ _Why_?”

“It was the only way for me.”

Even though Key's tone was apologetic, it was also final, leaving no room for arguments.

“Key,” said Xiumin softly. “We received a direct request to slay you.”

Key's eyes flashed, and his nostrils flared. “So be it, then.” He slid off the windowsill. There was a rustle, and the orange light of the sunset streaming in from the window darkened, eclipsed by his enormous red and black wings. The light shone through where the skin was thinnest, making the ornaments adorning the wings glow. “Let's fight, fair and square.”

Taemin looked around; at Xiumin, who was unfolding his own wings; at Kai, who was still standing in the same spot with his shoulders hunched, like a displaced puppet whose strings had been cut; at Key.

“Come back,” Taemin whispered.

Key looked back at him, steady and sure.

“No.”

Everything happened very fast. Key and Xiumin moved at the same time, Taemin a beat behind, ducking under a wing whizzing sharply through the air, there was the blunt sound of something stabbing through flesh, a gurgling noise, drops of warm blood everywhere; Taemin whirled around and saw Xiumin speared on Key's wing, already dissolving, the occupied wing creating an opening in Key's defense, and Taemin pounced.

He might have been quick enough to do it. He never learned if he would have been, because his attack was interrupted by a sudden blast of pain exploding in his rib-cage. The force of it punched a strangled gasp from his lungs and stopped him from crashing into Key by a hair's breadth.

Strength was seeping from Taemin's body fast, the unrelenting pain that was stuck in his chest holding him up more than his weakening limbs. He was staring at Key and saw the shock he felt, mirrored in Key's wide eyes. Slowly, it dawned on Taemin that the source of the pain wasn't Key. While turning his head, he realized something else that seemed vaguely connected, numb with agony as his mind was: he hadn't paid any attention to what Kai had been doing during the brief fight.

Taemin caught a glimpse of the claws piercing his chest, and the hands and arms attached to them. He was fading fast. The last thing he saw was Kai's face, his eyes just as wide as Key's and his complexion ashen. For the first time ever, he looked uneasy about slaying Taemin.


	6. VI

The drudes talked about Key only once, when Taemin returned to the Realm. Taemin didn't listen. Afterwards, the atmosphere was gloomy all around. Everyone minded their own business, not in the mood for conversations. Taemin would have done the same, except Xiumin floated over to him.

“I wouldn't have thought,” he said.

“Me neither,” Taemin murmured.

“He got me right in the stomach too. His wings are monsters, but they're so fast. I barely saw them coming.”

“Yeah, he's really strong.”

Taemin still felt the aftereffects of being slayed; Xiumin had to be in pain as well. They hovered next to each other in silence for a while.

“What do you think we should do?” Taemin finally asked.

Xiumin made a contemplative humming noise. When he spoke, it was slow and deliberate.

“You saw how he was. I don't think it's great he went rogue, but it looks like we can't do much about it. It happens. I think we should just leave him be.”

At times, Taemin found himself wondering if Key would get sick of being rogue at some point and join them back in the Realm. In all the stories of rogue demons Taemin had heard, there had been no mention of these demons returning of their own volition, but maybe it was just always left out of the stories because it wasn't as exciting. Either way, he didn't think Key would return. The other drudes seemed to share this opinion, since none of them ever said his name, as if it was nothing but a reminder of something they would rather not think about. They knew, as did Taemin, how Key was when he'd set his mind on something.

In the end, Taemin took Xiumin's advice. Normalcy in the Realm as he knew it was beyond repair already, there was little point in trying to restore it. If Key so desperately wanted to stay in the human world and play around with humans, Taemin wouldn't stop him. Sometimes he asked himself whether that meant they had met for the last time. The possibility of it stung; however, the look on Key's face back then made it impossible to imagine him back in the Realm. It would be like dragging a prisoner back to jail rather than returning him to where he belonged. _Selfish_ , Kai had called it.

Taemin felt as though his essence was boiling whenever he thought of Kai. He didn't know what he would do when he saw him again, but he could hardly wait. Fighting Kai seemed like it would be a cathartic experience, so perhaps that was the way to go. Key had gotten a pass, but Taemin was not about to let Kai off the hook so easily. What had gone on in his head back then? Taemin supposed Kai had slayed him to spite him. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more to it, to everything Kai had done. He needed to see him.

And so, when he didn't see Kai for at least two more human decades, Taemin became quite irritated. His resentment grew along with the passing time, so much so that he started asking his summoners for the date to make sure time was in fact passing and it wasn't just his impatience playing tricks on him. After a while, being summoned became a bit of an annoyance, both because he couldn't help hoping to come across Kai each time and hated himself for it, and because it added a physical dimension to his desire to see Kai, which made it a lot harder to ignore than it was in the Realm. He preferred not having a stomach that could turn, a chest that could tighten, or other body parts that acted up in their own stubborn ways. Dealing with his mind alone was enough.

The next time Onew visited, Taemin caught him just before he left.

“Hey, angel!”

Onew turned around, the usual blinding smile on his face, his teeth shining as white as his robe and wings. “Yes, Taemin?”

“Have you visited the incubi and succubi recently?”

If Onew was surprised, he didn't show it. “Possibly,” he said. “Or maybe not.”

One thing Taemin missed about his bodily form was having a pair of eyes to roll. Why had he even hoped for a straightforward answer from an angel? Ignoring this, he continued. “There's an incubus called Kai I need to talk to. I usually run into him quite a lot, but I haven't seen him in a while. I was wondering if you know anything.”

“I know a thing or two,” said Onew modestly. He was still smiling. It was starting to get on Taemin's nerves.

“Is any of it related to what I want to know?”

“Who knows? It can't be ruled out.”

“All right.” Taemin tried to sound expectant rather than annoyed. “Try me.”

A hint of pity invaded Onew's sweet smile, which didn't make it any less irritating. “I'm afraid that even if I knew something you want to know, I couldn't let you know. I'm very sorry, Taemin.”

Although Taemin was used to conversations with angels leading absolutely nowhere, it was still a disappointment. “Fine,” he grumbled. “You can get lost, then.”

Onew nodded sagely, his smile gentle. “It's all right to feel frustrated. We don't make the rules, we only follow them, isn't that so? I sincerely hope you find the answers you are looking for.”

His silhouette grew brighter and brighter until it became unbearable to look at, and then the brightness disappeared, together with Onew.

Decades passed by. Taemin witnessed the turn of the century and still hadn't so much as caught a glimpse of Kai.

At some point in time, the frustration began to dull. However, while not as acute anymore, it never fully went away; it stayed with him, always simmering at the back of his mind. He was still waiting, and the human world was edging closer and closer toward the turn of the millennium.


	7. VII

_Taemin, we call upon you by the flesh and the blood of our offering. Kim Yerim calls you; Oh Sehun calls you. We bare to you our souls as we lay down our oath; let the song of my voice be your guide, the dance of the flames be your beacon. We hereby bid you enter this world._

Taemin wrinkled his nose. He hadn't even opened his eyes and he already didn't like his new summoners — the room smelled like alcohol, and they were loud.

“Oh fuck, it actually worked!”

“I know, stop pushing me out of the circle!”

“I can't believe it worked!”

“Oh yeah, another demon, awesome. There's _two_ of them now, you realize that?”

“Yeah, but we can't tell the other one what to do, dumbass!”

“Sehun, you're the kind of idiot who'd set fire to a burning house 'cause you're supposed to fight fire with— SNAKE!”

Only after he had already done it, Taemin realized that reviving a dead snake might be rather nonconstructive in getting these humans to quiet down. Their earsplitting shrieks grated at his nerves no less than their bickering had. He considered stirring up the white smoke or making the candle flames blaze up to draw their attention, but he wasn't in the mood for gimmickry.

“Can you just _shut up_?” he bellowed.

It did the trick — they shut their mouths and stared at him with eyes as big as saucers, snake forgotten. Sehun was standing behind Yerim, clinging to her shoulders, and she was hugging a tattered Book of Spells to her chest. They were sweaty, as humans often were, and Taemin hoped it wasn't because of the heat but because they were terrified of him.

“Great. Now take a deep breath, and one of you tell me what you summoned me here for.”

It took them a while to pull themselves together; Yerim got there first.

“Uhh,” she said. Not a promising start. “So there's this creepy demon who showed up here when we were having a party. I mean, at first everything was normal and fun. Until we found out he's, you know. A demon. And ever since then he's sorta been messing with us. Can you, uh— help with that?”

Taemin sighed. “Sure. Do you know what kind of demon it is?”

She looked at Sehun, who only shrugged in response.

“An evil one, probably,” she said.

“He's been hogging the bedroom a lot,” Sehun added. “He's in there now too. Well, unless he moved somewhere else, I dunno.”

“Right.” Taemin already couldn't wait to be done here. He wasn't keen on staying with these two teenagers any longer than he needed to. “I'll see what I can do once you've released me.”

“Ah!” exclaimed Yerim, as if she'd completely forgotten about that, which she probably had.

It turned out she and Sehun hadn't really planned this out until the end, and so Taemin had to sit through some discussing and a lot of arguing before they were ready to continue. When he finally left the room with the objective to “please get rid of that weird demon in the bedroom,” it came as a great relief.

He walked through a narrow corridor. Glancing out of a window he passed, he saw in the dwindling daylight that this place was quite far up. It had to be one of those high-rise buildings he had seen once or twice now.

The bedroom seemed to be at the other end of the apartment. There was a presence, distant but palpable, and the closer Taemin got, the more clearly he felt it. A step away from the bedroom door, he froze. He recognized that presence.

Heart suddenly hammering against his ribs, he entered the room, and indeed. The familiarity of the situation sent a pang through his chest.

“So you're alive,” Taemin said.

It was the first thing that came to his mind, but he immediately wished he hadn't spoken so soon. He wasn't ready for a conversation, still in the middle of processing that Kai was standing in front of him. Worse perhaps, he'd sounded casual. Taemin didn't want to sound casual. He wanted to show, to vent the accumulated feelings of their last encounter and the frustration of having had to bottle them up for so long.

Kai was staring at him as though he had expected to see Taemin, while looking just as unprepared for it as Taemin felt. An odd mixture of reluctance and relief rested on his face.

“I guess so,” he said quietly. “It's been a while, huh?”

“A little while, yeah.” There had been a sufficient amount of reproach in that at least.

“You've been called here to slay me?”

Something about the question made Taemin think the exact wording mattered.

“To get rid of you,” he said.

Kai gave a nod, and the relief in his expression grew.

A faint queasiness was gnawing at the walls of Taemin's stomach. It, too, was familiar. He realized that the last time he had felt it was when he'd seen Key together with Kai. There was something Taemin didn't know, and he dreaded learning what it was.

“Anything else?” he asked, unable to bear the silence.

Kai was chewing on his bottom lip. “Yes. Maybe you guessed already, I'm not sure. We might not meet in the future. It depends on how you…”

His voice trailed off. When he finally spoke again, it sounded different, quivering with repressed emotion. “I had to. I was going crazy.”

That very moment, it all clicked into place.

“You're rogue,” Taemin whispered.

Kai said nothing, only gazed at him, his whole body tense.

Taemin stood perfectly still, as if to compensate for the turmoil in his mind. How Kai had always stayed in the human world for too long, his irritability at Taemin's views on Key going rogue — everything appeared in a new light. Taemin's chest squeezed around his lungs so tightly that he could barely breathe. Lost for words, he could only ask the same question he had asked Key.

“Why?”

There was another pause. Kai wasn't moving either. “I like it,” he eventually said. “I like the human world. I like _this_.” He vaguely gestured to his own body. “And I hated going back. Whenever I was in the Realm, I couldn't stand it, I was losing my mind. Floating around as a cloud of smoke for what felt like forever — for what was gonna be forever… It was a nightmare. I tried getting out of it so many times, but it never worked.”

Taemin's fingers were buried in the fabric of his robe, clenched into fists. “Until?”

“Until I talked to Key.”

He sucked in a shaky breath.

“I'd never talked to a rogue demon,” Kai continued, looking uneasy. “I didn't want to slay you last time, but I had to take this chance. I knew he'd be able to help me, and he was. He helped me understand why I hadn't managed to sever the connection before, and the next time I tried, it finally worked.”

“Congratulations,” said Taemin icily, his voice steady although he was trembling with anger. The way Kai scowled at him in response both satisfied Taemin and riled him up even more. “So how is it? Are you enjoying life as a rogue demon so far?”

“Yes, I am,” Kai snapped. “Why do you have a problem with it?”

“I don't,” said Taemin, but it was so unconvincing that he might as well have remained silent.

The same question was whirling around in his head, and it was making him furious — why was he this angry? With Key, he'd thought what bothered him so much was that Key had taken all his energy for himself, depriving Taemin and the other drudes. However, he had to reconsider now that he was positively burning with frustration at Kai, much worse than anything he'd felt toward Key, although none of the drudes would be able to sense the energy of an incubus missing. Was it about the mere concept of a demon going rogue? It hardly could be, since it wasn't like Taemin cared about moral principles. If the drudes' Realm wasn't affected by it, why _did_ he care?

 _They're leaving me_ , he suddenly thought, and the numbing rush of cold that swept through his stomach left no doubt this was exactly it. _He's leaving me._

In a way, Taemin had known it. He wasn't just angry at Kai, he was angry at himself too. Angry that he cared enough to get this worked up. Kai could do whatever he wanted. Objectively, there was no connection between him and Taemin that would have given him the right to ask something from Kai — especially something this profound — even if it had felt to Taemin like there was some kind of bond. He had no right to feel betrayed, and yet he did. Kai was being selfish, but so was he. Taemin couldn't stand it, any of it.

“You're pissed,” said Kai, tone laced with acid. “It's not hard to tell.”

Taemin had been so wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't even remember what he'd last said. “What did you expect?” he asked, not bothering with a denial.

“Oh, I expected you to be pissed.”

“Then why are you?”

“Me?”

“You're just as pissed as I am.”

“You have no idea,” Kai snarled, his eyes suddenly ablaze and his teeth bared. The air around him started flickering. “You're standing there, ready to lecture me when everything is your fucking fault, and I can't even be angry at you, because you have no idea—”

He gasped, and the air was back to normal. Confusion momentarily usurped Taemin's anger.

“I have no idea?” he repeated, frowning. “What's my fault?”

Kai's shoulders slumped and his head rolled forward as he gave a hollow, almost defeated laugh. Then he raised his eyes to meet Taemin's, and Taemin startled at the vulnerability in them.

“You,” Kai said quietly. “You're the reason it never worked.”

Taemin stared at him, dumbstruck. Not once had he ever seen or heard Kai like this.

“I'd just never caught on. You know how I said I tried going rogue over and over? The times I got closest were the times I hadn't seen you for the longest. Key helped me figure it out.” Kai sighed, absently rubbing one of his shoulders. “I should have known. Even before the whole thing with Key happened, I never wanted you to know I was trying to go rogue. Maybe a part of me realized and was scared that if you knew, you'd somehow make me stay. So I always kept it from you. And good fucking choice too, because I never regretted going rogue even once, and then I take one damn look at you and—”

Once again, he broke off. Taemin was blinking rapidly, his stomach knotting up.

Kai's hand was clinging to his shoulder now. “So I avoided you as best I could after I realized. Didn't twist anyone's words, didn't hang around after fulfilling requests. I got lucky with this one guy who wanted to trick me into serving him until he died. I let him trick me. Humans get quite old these days, so I spent a long time in the human world. When the guy finally kicked the bucket, I'd been here and hadn't seen you in so long, I just knew it was going to work, and it did. I resisted the Pull until the connection snapped, and that was it.”

An unbearable weight was closing in around Taemin, crushing him from every direction the longer he stood still. His blood was too hot as it pulsed through his veins, his hands still clutching at his robe were ice-cold, and he was dizzy. It was too much.

He took a step forward, and Kai flinched back. Tension returned to Kai's body, and his slumped posture shifted into the alert readiness of someone expecting to be attacked at any moment. Taemin walked closer slowly, Kai following each of his movements with wary eyes. When the air began to flicker around Kai, Taemin came to a halt a few steps away from him, just close enough to sense an echo of the heat radiating from Kai's body.

“Go, then,” Taemin breathed.

The flickering ceased, and Kai retreated farther against the wall. “What?”

“I can't leave until the request is fulfilled. Go so I can return to the Realm. Or slay me, I don't care.”

Surprise spread across Kai's face, quickly followed by unease. “You mean you're just… gonna leave me alone?”

“That's what you want, isn't it? Don't worry, I'm not going to go after you. I'll leave you to it, just like I did Key. Do what you want, it's none of my business.”

Taemin could barely even bring himself to look at Kai. He just wanted this to be over; wanted nothing more than to escape from the suffocating cage of his own body.

Kai was chewing at his lip again. “I,” he said. Then his eyes shifted and widened, fixed on something behind Taemin's shoulder. Taemin spun around reflexively.

There was another demon standing in the door frame. He was short and almost looked human — an exceedingly grumpy human dressed in all black — except for his horns. The gray cloud hovering above him crawled along the ceiling, slowly covering it. Probably some kind of weather demon. Faint, rumbling thunder was audible.

“What do you want?” Taemin snapped, a lot more aggressively than he had intended.

The weather demon's thick eyebrows raised. “Am I interrupting something?”

“If we say yes, will you leave?” asked Kai. There was a sullen undertone to his voice that made it clear he wasn't happy about the disruption. It didn't seem to impress the intruder.

“No. Which of you is the one I need to finish off?”

Taemin frowned. “Those two summoned another demon? Are they insane?”

“They are pretty stupid. And you didn't answer my question.”

A crackle sounded behind Taemin, followed by a yelp. He looked over his shoulder and saw Kai doubled over, arms clutched around his middle, his face twisted in pain.

“I guess it's you, then,” said the weather demon. “Don't bother trying your little tricks, it's only going to— well. Never mind.“

The air had flickered, but Kai hadn't disappeared; instead, there was that crackle again and sparks flew where the air wavered, pricking his skin like tiny lightning bolts and making him stagger and groan.

Taemin felt the weather demon move before he saw it. Kai wasn't going to be ready in time to intercept the attack, Taemin knew as much without thinking about it. Just as unthinkingly, he lunged forward.

The force of the collision sent the weather demon flying and tumbling to the floor, Taemin right on top of him. Taemin struggled to get back up quickly and bring some distance between them so he could put his whole wingspan to use. The weather demon, however, had recovered from the surprise attack — he'd caught hold of Taemin's arm and was dragging him down with an iron grip too tight to shake off, so Taemin had to make do with the position he was in. He tried to slash the arm that held him with his wing tip. Before he could reach it, there was another crackling noise and a flash of pain pierced his wing. Taemin recoiled, the clingy hand preventing him from going far, and his wing gave a twitch and a flutter instead of finding its aim. The small bolts of lightning left behind an unpleasant, numb prickle where they had struck.

They were in trouble. Taemin had fought a weather demon once before, ages ago, and lost miserably. His mind was racing. As long as they were inside, where the cloud could cover the entire ceiling and punish each attack with lightning, the odds weren't in their favor, especially since both he and Kai had already taken a few blows. Their best chance was to take this outside, and the fastest way to get there were the windows.

Abruptly giving in to the pull, he bent down, grabbed the weather demon by the collar, and yanked him up. Spinning on his heel as best he could, Taemin flapped his wings hard to give himself momentum as he blindly shoved the struggling weather demon toward the window. They crashed into the wall right next to it, groaning with pain, Taemin's wings once more stung by miniature lightning bolts.

Just when he had recovered enough to move, a steady pressure locked around his throat. He gasped and grabbed the weather demon's arms, trying in vain to dislodge the fingers relentlessly squeezing his neck. A twitch of his wings earned him another wave of prickling pain all over them, making his body go limp momentarily.

The weather demon cursed, and his hold on Taemin's throat disappeared. It took Taemin a few moments of wheezing and blinking hard to regain his composure. Once his eyes focused, he saw Kai scuffling with the weather demon, claws buried in his chest right below his collarbone. Kai managed to deepen the cut and pull it downward just a bit before there was a loud thunderclap and a startlingly big flash of lightning shot through his chest. He shrank back. The weather demon reached for his throat.

Within a heartbeat, Taemin was on his feet, dragging the weather demon up with both arms around his chest in a bizarre imitation of a hug. The weather demon was thrashing and kicking, a horn grazing Taemin's cheek and almost gouging his eyes out. His wings were starting to grow numb with countless electric pinpricks. Without wasting any more time, he crouched down, clinging to the weather demon, and hurled them both at the window.

It shattered with a crash, the noise mixing with cracks of thunder, but Taemin barely felt the pain of it. The fall was long, and he was already fading. It wasn't what he'd planned, but it was just as well — the weather demon couldn't fly, so he was done for too. Taemin distantly heard him curse again through the swish of the air in his ears.

The final thing Taemin remembered was asking himself whether he would last until they hit the ground.


	8. VIII

Taemin tried to contemplate, but the constant, dull pain nagging at his shadow was distracting. All his mind seemed to be capable of was wondering whether Kai was all right, and hoping that he'd been smart enough to get out of there before those crazy teenagers summoned another demon.

Once the pain had eased a little, thinking became easier as well. Still, Taemin's thoughts went in circles. How much damage had that final lightning bolt done? He hadn't been able to look back anymore after dragging the weather demon away — for all he knew, Kai could have already begun to turn translucent then. It occurred to Taemin that if Kai had been slayed, he now had a new bodily form. It was an alien idea. Taemin was so used to Kai's appearance, not once having spared a thought about his shadow form. He tried to imagine how Kai would handle getting forced to return to the Realm; like with Key, he didn't think it would last long. Kai had been right about that.

After the pain had faded entirely, Taemin almost wished it hadn't, because the wheels in his mind were now perpetually working at full speed, flooding it with questions and memories. And although he couldn't stop thinking about Kai and the things he had said, Taemin didn't know if he should expect to see him again. Something stirred in him at the thought that he hadn't merely imagined the bond between them, that Kai had felt it too; at the same time, Kai had clearly chosen to sever this connection when he'd gone rogue and thus erased his entry from every existing copy of the Book of Spells, and with it their shared history. But he had also chosen not to escape when brought face to face with Taemin, had instead told him things he could just as well have kept secret. Taemin wondered what else Kai would have said if they hadn't been interrupted.

Onew visited the Realm at one point, and Taemin tried to pry about Kai again, this time without any hopes of getting an even remotely satisfying answer. He wasn't disappointed.

“How nosy you are,” Onew said, laughing. “So cute!”

Taemin was in a sour mood afterwards. He floated around with no aim except to avoid contact with anyone else, sulking on account of having been called nosy _and_ cute.

It felt like he'd been floating like this for a long time when two newer drudes came his way, looking dangerously like they might want to strike up a conversation. He didn't even know their names, and he didn't intend to learn them now, so he got ready to swerve one way or the other.

Then everything went silent. His vision glazed over, and the familiar, distant roar of a summoning filled his mind. He heard nothing more except for the voice of a human calling his name.

_Taemin, I call upon you by the flesh and the blood of my offering. Zhang Yixing calls you. I bare to you my soul as I lay down my oath; let the song of my voice be your guide, the dance of the flames be your beacon. I hereby bid you enter this world._


	9. IX

Taemin didn't feel like opening his eyes. He felt like floating around in the Realm by himself. His shadow seemed so much more appealing, his bodily form heavy and unwieldy in comparison.

The voice of his summoner sounded, but he didn't appear to address Taemin, something Taemin found a little odd. He had assumed the human would be alone.

“Did I do it right?”

Then there was another voice, one that eradicated any thoughts of the Realm or shadows from Taemin's mind and made his heart leap in his chest.

“I mean, he's here, so… I guess.”

Taemin jerked his eyes wide open. He was in a spacious room with wooden floorboards and white walls, lit brightly by the sunlight streaming through the windows. A human stood across from him in a neatly drawn magic circle, and there, right next to the circle, was Kai.

He was wearing strange pants, their material looking much rougher and thicker than his usual attire, and an equally strange shirt with short sleeves and buttons, but it was unmistakably him. Taemin's stomach lurched with surprise, nervousness, relief. He almost forgot to revive the snake, which hadn't happened to him for as long as he could remember.

“Great,” said Yixing. Taemin noticed he was wearing clothes quite similar to Kai's. “The request is next, right?”

Kai nodded, and Yixing shuffled forward to the edge of the circle. He was looking directly at Taemin as he spoke, his expression eerily reminiscent of the sincerity of an angel; except an angel could hardly have performed a summoning ritual.

“Taemin. I release you if you pledge to talk to Kai.”

Again, Taemin was so confused that he nearly forgot one of the most basic steps in the routine. “I pledge,” he said quickly once he realized it, and took a step forward. _Talk to Kai_?

Kai kept rubbing a hand over his chest absently, his shoulders slumped. He went back and forth between avoiding Taemin's eye and staring a hole through him.

Taemin's attention shifted to Yixing as he casually stepped out of the magic circle.

“I'll leave you to it, then,” said Yixing, his smile both warm and slightly spaced out. He waved at Kai. “See you on Tuesday.”

“Uh, yeah. See you,” Kai mumbled.

Yixing left the room. There was an awkward silence during which Taemin tried to comprehend the situation he was in. He had so many questions but no idea where to start.

“What are you _wearing_?” he eventually blurted out.

Kai's hand paused its movements. “You don't like it?” he asked, a shadow of his usual grin pulling at his lips, even though his eyes remained vigilant.

Taemin surveyed the way the shirt hugged Kai's chest, the way the fit of the pants accentuated the length of his legs. “It's not bad,” he muttered.

“They're called jeans.” Kai lifted a leg slightly to tug at the other pant leg with his bare toes. “Lots of humans started wearing them. I like how they look, but they're kind of stifling.”

Taemin nodded, still trying to make sense of everything. “So I take it that you don't just spend your time messing around with humans?”

“No. Well, I do sometimes, but it's fun to mingle with them.”

Something kept tugging at Taemin's insides, constant and gentle, and he suddenly realized it was the Pull. It hadn't spread far and was so mild that he barely noticed it was there, sometimes lost in the flutters of his stomach. There was comfort in the steady tug and its promise that he could let it take him over and carry him to the Realm anytime he wanted, without it compelling him to do so.

He cleared his throat and gestured toward the door Yixing had closed behind him. “And he's…?”

“I met him at yoga class.”

Under different circumstances, Taemin would have laughed. Kai looked like he expected Taemin might. As it was, he only raised his eyebrows, prompting Kai to go on.

“It's a little stupid, actually.” Kai was gazing at his feet, more sheepish than Taemin had ever seen him. “I had this elaborate plan to trick him into summoning you, but he was so calm when he found out I'm a demon that I somehow ended up telling him about the whole situation. And in the end, he offered to summon you of his own accord.”

Taemin blinked. “Just like that?”

“Yeah.” Kai shrugged, clearly as mystified as Taemin was at how someone could be this trusting. “He said he wanted to help. So I prepared everything, and he carried out the ritual.”

Taemin's heartbeat was strangely heavy in his chest. This wasn't a coincidental encounter. Kai had planned this. He'd wanted to see Taemin.

“You helped me last time,” said Kai softly.

It was Taemin's turn to shrug. “You told me it's pointless to force a rogue demon to return to the Realm,” he muttered. “If that weather demon had slayed you, you probably just would have gone rogue again eventually anyway.”

Kai cocked his head to the side, his gaze as intense as it was appraising. “Did you mean it when you said you were gonna leave me alone?”

Taemin's heart grew heavier still. “Yes.”

“Is that what you want?”

He opened his mouth, but the answer was stuck in his throat. He closed his mouth again, all at once worried what words would come out if he didn't.

“It's not what I want,” said Kai. “Not the way you meant it, anyway.”

Taemin swallowed. His throat was dry. “Which way, then?”

Kai didn't respond right away. “I need to be free,” he finally said. His voice was husky, and there was that undercurrent of emotion that made it tremble. “I want to stay rogue. But if you want… we could do something like this every now and then. I could get a human to summon you, and we could meet.” His lips twitched like he wanted to smile but was unsure if he should. “Like old times.”

It was as if a knot in Taemin's chest that had kept him from breathing suddenly loosened.

“Yeah,” he said. “I think I'd—” He broke off and took a breath to keep his voice steady. “I'd like that,” he then finished.

A warm, glowing desire filled him to the tips of his wings at the way Kai's eyes lit up and his face relaxed into a smile that was brilliant and wild in its giddiness. None of the weight that had pressed down Taemin's body was left; rather, it was lighter than his shadow had ever been.

When Taemin stepped forward, Kai's smile wavered and he tensed, but he didn't retreat. Taemin was walking toward him without knowing what he was going to do once he got there. Kai didn't budge and the air around him was still, even as Taemin moved right up in his space.

It had been a while since they had been this close to each other. Maybe that was why Taemin couldn't help studying the defined but soft curves of Kai's face, the steep, gentle slope of his nose, the plushness of his lips. The golden sunlight painted his bronze skin so beautifully.

Taemin leaned up and kissed him.

Kai made a noise, a sweet, longing sound, and the tension melted right out of his body. He was already kissing back, hands slipping around Taemin's waist and pulling him in. Kai's sultry, floral scent clouded Taemin's senses and made him lightheaded with want. He buried a hand in Kai's hair, the other clinging to his shirt.

Heat was seeping through the fabric of their clothes, melting their pounding heartbeats into one. Their bodies were pressed up against each other as though yearning for even more closeness. Taemin made no attempt to stifle the little gasps that escaped him, instead reveling in the way they got swallowed up between their greedy kisses. He couldn't get enough of how their lips fit together, of how soft their touch was. He licked over Kai's plump bottom lip before taking it between his teeth and biting down. Kai's jaw dropped on a moan, and Taemin shoved his tongue inside, desperate for more. When he rubbed their tongues together, Kai whined and his hips jerked forward.

“Taemin, wait,” he panted in between Taemin sucking on his tongue and nibbling his upper lip. “There's a b-bedroom next door, we can—”

He interrupted himself with a gasp as Taemin dipped lower and sucked roughly on his throat.

“Lead the way,” Taemin murmured against warm, damp skin, unable to resist one more gentle bite before wiggling out of Kai's arms.

Kai was already busy unbuttoning his jeans. “Fuck, these get so tight,” he groaned and swiftly pushed them down and off his legs. He wasn't wearing anything underneath. Taemin's fingers were itching to dig into the soft, firm flesh of Kai's butt or wrap around his leaking erection, but he instead busied them with undoing his own clothing while following Kai through the door closest to them and into the adjacent room.

It was just as big as the other one had been and just as bare, except for the huge mattress in the corner. The light blue bedding looked appealing to lie in, the silky fabric shimmering in the rays of sunlight that shone through the broad window above the mattress. A sudden thought crossed Taemin's mind as Kai sidled up to him, arms sneaking around Taemin's waist once more.

“Whose place is this?” Taemin asked. Kai had to have taken off his shirt along the way, since he was now stark naked too; Taemin shivered at the sensation of skin on skin and the way their cocks were trapped in between their bodies.

Kai grinned at him. “Mine,” he purred.

A second later, Taemin found himself amid silky-smooth sheets with Kai on top of him, pinning Taemin's hands over his head and kissing him senseless. It was more languid than before, but there was more tongue, and the slick slide of Kai's cock against his had Taemin writhing and bucking his hips with need. Kai was rutting downward, slow and filthy, until Taemin couldn't even focus on kissing him back anymore, mouth slack and defenseless against Kai's ravenous lips and tongue.

He would have let it go on for hours. However, his wings started to hurt eventually, buried under his full weight as they were, one of them at an awkward angle. So he struggled against Kai's grip, and once he managed to tug his wrists free, he leaned up and flipped them over. Kai let him, pulling Taemin on top of him with a hand on his ass that had Taemin biting his lip and grinding down his hips. Kai's other hand joined the first, grabbing and pulling the cheeks apart. Taemin hissed and rocked his hips faster, his dick twitching as a finger rubbed over his exposed hole.

“Looks like you want something inside you, hm?” Kai murmured.

Taemin's breath stuttered, and he slumped forward and attached his lips to Kai's neck again instead of an answer. It seemed to have been a rhetorical question anyway, since Kai didn't wait for a response before slicking his fingers with precum and slipping one into Taemin's ass. Taemin relaxed against him with a shuddering sigh.

When Kai pushed in a second finger and his fingertips found Taemin's sweet spot, Taemin hummed against Kai's throat and started sucking on the tender skin lightly. The more Kai's fingers stayed on his prostate, stroking and massaging gently, the harder Taemin sucked, needing an outlet for the quivers of pleasure that kept shooting through his groin and made his dick pulse. It was almost annoying how perfectly Kai knew where to touch and where to rub to make Taemin melt like wax in his hands.

At some point, Kai's fingers stilled and he huffed out a breathless laugh. Taemin suppressed a whine, but he did let up on Kai's neck to pout at him.

“What?”

Kai grinned, and his fingers stirred again. Taemin's back arched as they stroked over his sweet spot just right.

“Look at you,” Kai said. “You're almost leaking as much as me.”

Taemin lowered his head to glance down and was surprised to see a small puddle of precum pooling on Kai's stomach below the tip of his dick, another drop seeping down as he watched. Looking back up, he was met with a smile that was entirely too smug for his liking. Taemin returned it with a scowl but was well aware that he wasn't at his most intimidating right now. He leaned forward again.

“Kai,” he breathed, lips brushing over Kai's throat, and Kai's whole body shivered beneath him.

“Mmh, yes?”

One of Taemin's hands sneaked downward and gave Kai's butt a vicious pinch, making him flinch and squeak.

“Spread your legs.”

Kai obeyed without missing a beat. His thighs parted so that Taemin's hand could slip in between, and Taemin felt Kai's hole flutter in anticipation as he rubbed his thumb over it roughly.

“How many do you want?” he asked in between two sloppy kisses to Kai's neck. The number of bruises he had already left there was both startling and fascinating, and he could barely stop putting his mouth on it.

Kai's breath hitched, and his legs spread wider. “Three.”

Taemin was gracious enough to dip his fingers into the sticky mess on Kai's stomach before shoving three of them into Kai's hole. The strangled moan it drew from him made his throat vibrate, and Taemin licked over the bruised skin in response. The tips of Kai's fingers were digging into Taemin's sweet spot harder now, which made it difficult not to get distracted. Taemin wiggled his fingers deeper, groaning at how soft and hot Kai's ass felt inside and how tightly his hole clenched around them.

The position wasn't ideal, forcing Taemin to strain his arm to reach, but when Kai lifted one of his legs toward his own chest, Taemin got a better angle and the tips of his fingers bumped into Kai's prostate. Kai gasped and rewarded Taemin with a poignant twist of his own fingers.

The air around them was hot and heavy, filled with panting and increasingly needy moans. Taemin was rutting against Kai, both to feel the drag of fingers against his rim and to satisfy his cock's longing for friction, and Kai's hips were rolling upward to meet his. When Taemin spread his fingers, quick and hard, Kai's voice broke on a desperate wail, and from then on, Taemin alternated between rubbing over Kai's sweet spot and scissoring roughly.

In no time at all, Kai was reduced to a whimpering mess, and his dick kept twitching up against Taemin's stomach. Despite everything, he never stopped massaging Taemin's prostate, even when his body went tense and he sucked in a sharp breath as if surprised.

Taemin rose slightly to watch Kai's eyes roll back in his head and his mouth fall open in bliss as he came, back arching off the mattress and hole fluttering around Taemin's fingers. The sight almost pushed Taemin over the edge too, even more so with how Kai was moaning and gasping for breath, beside himself with pleasure, and the warm spurts of cum against Taemin's stomach.

Once Kai stilled, Taemin pulled out his fingers to wrap them around his own cock. He had barely given it a tug when Kai's free hand grabbed onto his wrist.

“A— _ah_ … fuck. Taemin,” he breathed, his back arching some more.

Taemin shuddered and tried moving his hand, but Kai didn't let up. He frowned, confused. “What?”

“A-again…” Kai let out another soft moan and bit his lip. “Wanna come again.”

Taemin's dick gave a painful throb, and he quickly squeezed around the base to keep himself from coming on the spot. Cursing under his breath, he pushed himself up on his hands.

“All right,” he said curtly. “Don't take out your fingers.”

He shuffled around until he was straddling Kai's chest and facing his cock. It wasn't fully hard anymore, but it was well past the halfway point, and it looked like it was filling out again. Taemin crawled lower, eyelids fluttering at how the movement shifted Kai's fingers inside him, and bent down to lap precum off Kai's stomach; the heady taste told him right away whose it was. Taemin grinned when Kai's dick jerked. He followed the outlines of muscles downward with his tongue, sometimes pausing to give a spot extra attention with his lips or teeth and eliciting another twitch.

By the time he finally reached Kai's cock, it was hard and leaking again, and he readily licked off both the fresh precum and any remnants of Kai's previous release trickling down the throbbing shaft and to his balls. The fingers of Kai's free hand dug into Taemin's thigh, and when Taemin swallowed down his cock, Kai choked on a moan. Too keyed up to tease any more, Taemin started sucking straightaway at a punishing pace, as if Kai hadn't just come a minute ago. He relished the desperate noises it drew from Kai and the way his hand would surely leave bruises on Taemin's thigh with how hard he was gripping it.

What Taemin hadn't considered was the new angle. When Kai started fingering him again, massages now interlaced with sharp thrusts aimed perfectly at his sweet spot, Taemin's arms almost gave out. The position made his face burn, and his thighs were shaking with the exertion of holding him up while such intense pleasure was pulsing through his body, but he kept his ass high in the air so it wouldn't stop.

He forced himself to pay attention to sucking Kai's cock despite his own feeling like it was going to burst soon. His ears were filled with the thrumming of his heart and the filthy slurping sounds he was making, accompanied by the sweet melody of Kai's moans and whines. He was vaguely aware of similar noises escaping him as he fucked himself on Kai's fingers and gagged himself on Kai's dick.

It started low in Taemin's groin, building more and more quickly, and when a hand wrapped around his cock and began stroking, it surged up inside him in a blinding wave of all-consuming pleasure that shook his entire body to the core. He cried out, hips spasming with the electrifying jolts Kai's fingers inside him sent up his spine and straight to his cock, making him throb hotly and steadily in Kai's hand. Taemin kept sucking hard all the while and swallowed every drop he could when Kai's dick twitched and spilled down his throat.

It lasted for a long time, wave after wave rushing through him, almost too intense for his body to handle. Then Kai's fingers left his prostate, and Taemin jerked forward as his cock pulsed and pumped out spurts of cum, the release so strong it bordered on painful.

Eventually, he was spent and collapsed on top of Kai.

Kai's fingers had slipped out of him, but Taemin's mouth was still wrapped around Kai's dick, still sucking, too comfortable to let go so soon. It was sluggish and sloppy and made Taemin hum with content. A tingly aftershock shot up his spine, and he sucked harder. Kai whimpered, and Taemin realized he was trembling and squirming beneath him. Then he realized Kai had just come two times in a row and was probably quite sensitive. Still, his dick was half hard. Taemin hummed again as he considered making Kai come for a third time.

In the end, he decided to leave it at that and pulled off with a wet pop. He managed to sit up despite his wobbly muscles barely obeying him. A mix of drool and cum was smeared around his mouth and dribbling down his chin. He wiped it off with the back of his hand, mildly aroused by how disgusting it was, and turned around.

He had just enough time to marvel at how beautiful Kai looked all fucked out; his lips bitten red, his cheeks flushed pink, and his face relaxed into a sultry display of contentment. Then Kai yanked him down and smashed their lips together.

In spite of the fiery start, it was an exceedingly lazy kiss, more tongue than anything, sometimes teeth when Taemin was caught off guard by another aftershock. Kai was still shivering. His hands were rubbing up and down Taemin's back, and Taemin brushed his fingers through Kai's hair.

After a while, he was too drained to keep up even this, and so he reluctantly drew back and let his head sink down on Kai's shoulder. It was surprisingly comfortable. Without him wanting to, any remaining tension seeped from his body and his eyes fluttered shut. Kai's flowery scent enveloped him, lighter than before, almost soothing. One of Kai's hands stayed on his lower back.

“That's a nice bed you have,” Taemin mumbled, and Kai chuckled. It sounded low and muffled in Taemin's ear.

“I guess it is. Although it's a bit messy now.”

“Oh, right. We're actually going to have to clean this.”

“Yeah. Hold on…”

Kai's body twisted, Taemin slipping off to the side a little. There was a faint splashing sound, and then something cold and damp touched his chest, making him wince and crack an eye open. Kai was rubbing him down with a wetted towel; the scratchy material wasn't exactly pleasant, but it got rid of the stickiness, so it was a good trade.

Taemin watched as Kai cleaned his own stomach. “Do you just keep this by your bed?”

“I need it quite a lot.”

Having finished, Kai tossed the towel to the side. Taemin stretched out a hand to circle Kai's dick and squeeze around the flushed head experimentally, fascinated by how it still hadn't gone soft. When he poked at the slit with his index finger, Kai flinched and a trickle of precum oozed from the tip and down Taemin's hand.

“Go easy, I just cleaned up,” Kai grumbled, sounding much too pouty for Taemin to take him seriously. Nevertheless, he released Kai's cock and nosed his bruised neck instead. He held his stained hand up to Kai's mouth in invitation, delighting in how eagerly he licked it clean.

“Your little human friend's all right,” said Taemin. “I hope you'll find more like him in the future.”

“Me too.”

Taemin slotted a leg in between Kai's, entangling them and pulling himself even closer. His dick was soft, but his groin gave pleasant tingles as he pressed himself against the solid warmth of Kai's body. There was something about the way Kai was rubbing Taemin's lower back that made him want to never move another muscle.

“Hey,” Kai said softly. “Wanna know something?”

Taemin raised his shoulders in a lazy shrug. “If you ask like that, probably.”

He had been absent-minded, but Kai's hesitation before continuing made him perk up.

“I met Key again. More recently, I mean.”

“Oh.” Taemin was at a loss for words, distracted by the fact that the mention of Key's name wasn't followed by the uncomfortable twist of his stomach he had come to expect. Rather, something oddly wistful was curling in his chest. “How is he?”

“Good, I guess.” Kai's hand hadn't stopped stroking Taemin's back, and somehow Taemin appreciated it. “He asked about you.”

“Oh,” Taemin muttered again. He started toying with the fingers of Kai's hand that was resting on his chest. As he moved it, he noticed a mark right above Kai's heart, barely visible against his skin, like pale vines trailing across it and fanning out into faint, wispy streaks of lightning.

“Do you want to see him too?”

Taemin gave another shrug, even weaker than the previous one. “I don't know,” he said quietly. The idea of meeting Key outside of the Realm and their connected energies, meeting him just for the sake of seeing him, was foreign but not altogether unpleasant. “Maybe.”

“I think he wants to see you. If you don't plan on fighting him, that is.”

Taemin snorted. “I'll think about it.”

“About fighting him?” Kai asked, and Taemin was glad for the playful note in his voice.

“Meeting him.”

“Take your time. You have enough.”

“Yeah,” Taemin agreed. He suddenly felt all warm as he watched the sunlight stream through the windows above them, much less glaring now than it had been earlier. Kai was right. He had as much time as he could want.

He wondered how much time it would take for the mark on Kai's chest to heal completely. It would probably be gone within a few months or even weeks, considering how faint it was already. Still, it sparked off something in Taemin's mind, a vague qualm that then formed into an inevitable thought.

“We'll probably have to cut back on the fighting in the future, won't we?” He stared pensively at the evidence of their last encounter. “I could accidentally slay you or something stupid like that.”

Kai huffed. “Is that a challenge?”

Taemin touched Kai's chest where the mark was, tracing its faded, fragile lines gingerly with a finger. “No, actually,” he mumbled. “I mean it. It'd be risky.”

Kai didn't respond immediately. His voice was much softer when he did. “You're right. That would be a shame after everything.”

“Mh.”

Kai's hand wandered up Taemin's back until it reached his folded wings. Taemin stiffened at the first touch, but when Kai proceeded to pet them carefully, Taemin went limp against him. He buried his face in the crook of Kai's neck, all but purring at the gentle caress, and Kai hummed in response. Small, buzzing shivers went through Taemin, together with a rush of awe at both of their vulnerability. His lips parted, and he pressed an open-mouthed kiss to Kai's throat; then another with his mouth closed.

“It feels that nice?” asked Kai, and Taemin heard a hint of reverence in his voice too.

“They're quite sensitive,” Taemin whispered.

Kai made a contemplative noise and gave his wings another few pets.

For a while there was silence, Kai drawing idle patterns on Taemin's wings and back, and Taemin occasionally licking or nibbling at Kai's neck.

“It's strange,” said Kai eventually. “The way time passes here. It hasn't been that long, but it feels like I haven't seen you in another century.”

On impulse, Taemin raised his head to look at Kai. Though the grin on his face was as wild as always, the mellow orange of the sun painted an unusual softness into it; Taemin resisted the urge to kiss Kai and instead just looked. He could kiss him later, too. They still had eternity.

Then Kai pulled him closer and kissed him, and Taemin laughed. Unable to resist, he gave in, his mouth already seeking Kai's lips and tongue.

It was a short kiss — relatively at least — but it left Taemin both breathless and yearning for more, as Kai so often did. With a quiet sigh, Taemin settled back into his previous spot so the feeling would last.

Now that his body was no longer in a frenzy of emotions and sensations, he felt the Pull more clearly than before. Still, its tug was so gentle that it was hardly more than a polite offer. It was an offer he wouldn't be taking for another while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't think of much to say, even though I worked on this story for a long time… but I definitely want to thank everyone who read it, from the bottom of my heart! <3
> 
> [ka1tae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ka1tae) drew the most beautiful [illustration](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28674585) for this (fittingly enough, it's the last picture in the compilation^^)
> 
> You can also find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/softraincloud) if you'd like :)


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